Badly disfigured French woman begs for the right to die

A French woman badly disfigured by facial tumours caused by a rare and incurable disease has appealed to President Nicolas Sarkozy to allow her to die by euthanasia.

In an interview with the Agence France-Presse news agency, former school teacher Chantal Sebire, 52, begged for the right to end the "atrocious" suffering inflicted on her by the disease which has rendered her face unrecognisable because of growing tumours.

"An animal would not be allowed to endure what I have to endure," she said from her home in Plombieres-les-Dijon in central France, asking French media and Mr Sarkozy to allow her a dignified death.



Euthanasia is illegal in France, unlike in come other European countries such as the Netherlands and Belgium.

Ms Sebire told AFP that she suffered from a very rare disease called esthesioneuroblastoma, which attacks the nasal cavity. It had left her blind and had robbed her of almost all other senses, leaving her in terrible pain.

The disease caused "atrocious bouts of pain that can last up to four hours at a time". Pleading to be allowed to die serenely, the mother of three said that only 200 cases of the disease had been reported globally in the last 20 years.