The following video documents the final days of a woman who opted for physician-assisted suicide in 2010. Seventy-four year old Michele Causse Deriaz, a resident of Toulouse, France traveled to Switzerland with her partner and a friend in order to die on the day of her birth, July 29th. Michele’s story is very intriguing; She speaks bluntly, even joyfully, on the subject of her death and has strong yet simple views on the topic of Dying with Dignity. Michele volunteered for cameras to follow her in the days leading to her scheduled death and to be present as she chose to take a lethal dose of pentobarbital, prescribed by her end of life physician. She hoped that by participating in the documentary, physician-assisted suicide would be a more available option for others like her who wish to end their life. On the day before her death she left a message for viewers, “Let me say before dying that people really cherish life… I have to be really suffering to leave it; I wanted to live just like everyone else… There won’t be crowds of people lining up to die. The few who wish to die will certainly have good reasons.”
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If you enjoyed Michele’s story, you might also like Dying with Dignity, Demystifying the Process of Dying, Everybody Poops: The Post-Mortem Edition, Karl Wallenda’s Fatal Tightrope Fall, Possible Relatives: Tina Enghoff Photographs Homes of the Recently Deceased and Joshiah: We are the Creators of Our Universe
The south side of the mountain is considered to be “cleaner”. Most bodies on the southern, Nepalese side of the mountain have, at the very least, been removed from the main path. Only recently, helicopters have become able for use in the recovery of bodies; However, the body must be moved as far as a base camp on the south side of the mountain. The north side, which is controlled by the Chinese government, does not allow helicopter use for any purpose. The north side is notorious for being the more dangerous route with a far higher death rate than the south. On the northeastern side of the mountain lies “Rainbow Valley”. Despite its Care Bear-esque name, the area was dubbed as “Rainbow Valley” for the numerous corpses dressed in multicolored down jackets which line the main path.
This caused quite a bit of uproar from residents of Chihuahua who weren’t too thrilled knowing they would be walking past the corpse of a young woman on a regular basis. Eventually, most citizens became used to Pascualita staring at them through the window as they strolled around downtown. Som revel in the presence of this local oddity and view her as a sort of landmark which brings in a flock of tourists from Europe, South America and the United States each year. This story however, may be entirely, or at least partially legend. Many older residents of the area swear the body is truly that of the deceased Pascualita Esparza but just as many claim that shortly after the town went into an uproar over her display in the window, Pascuala made a statement that the body was not her deceased daughter. Obviously, the most logical theory is that Pascualita is a very life-like mannequin that was incredibly impressive for the time period; Perhaps Pascuala started an itty bitty rumor in an attempt to draw in customers to the store. One thing which keeps people questioning the authenticity of Pascualita is the small, lifelike and possibly decomposition related-imperfections such as the deep folds of her palm.
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