planned

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

Lyudmila Steblitskaya (center) with her daughter, Anastasia, and granddaughter, Nelli. Photo courtesy The Siberian Times.

Lyudmila Steblitskaya is a 65-year-old grandmother, retired cook and she has come back from the dead more than once. On November 4, 2011 Lyudmila was taken to Tomsk Regional Hospital in Russia by her daughter, Anastasia. At the time, Lyudmila was 61 years old and had a history of heart problems. After spending several days at the hospital, sadly, Lyudmila passed away. Anastasia began planning her mother’s funeral; She broke the news to her daughter, Nelli, informed family members of Lyudmila’s death, bought flowers, food for guests, even had a grave dug for her mother’s body, spending 60,000 roubles ($1,875 / 1,223 pounds) on her mother’s memorial service. On the day of Lyudmila’s funeral, Anastasia went to the hospital with the clothes her mother was to be buried in to collect the body. Hospital staff told her to wait a while because Lyudmila’s autopsy had not yet been performed. Meanwhile, Lyudmila awoke to find herself laying in the morgue with her skin cracked and peeling off because it had become frozen in the three days she spent inside a human refrigerator. An unnerved doctor found Anastasia waiting in the hall and informed her Lyudmila was very much alive and back in her hospital bed. Anastasia Steblitskaya was shocked to find her mother lying in bed, alive, just as the doctor had said. Lydmila says she has no memory of what happened; Only that she remembers being in the hospital on Friday, and waking up in the morgue on Monday. Less than one year later, in October of 2012, Lydmila died again. This time, she was somehow able to be resuscitated several hours after she had been pronounced dead. There are some reports that Lyudmila Steblitskaya died a third time, almost undergoing an autopsy again, before coming back to life; However, reports of the third instance are not confirmed. Nevertheless, coming back to life, even just one time, is an incredibly impressive feat.
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