A popular French YouTuber living with dissociative identity disorder caused by trauma is now documenting her efforts to end her life through euthanasia.
The 23-year-old, who uses the name Olympe, told her 255,000 followers that she has been “in contact with doctors” in Belgium, where euthanasia is legal. She wrote, “In the last quarter of 2023 I will have recourse to assisted suicide in Belgium. I am already in contact with the doctors.” She added, “It’s not a debate. It’s my life. It’s a decision that I made which was difficult to take.”
Olympe’s successful YouTube channel focuses on her mental health challenges, chronicles what it’s like to live with 40 different personalities, and answers questions regarding ADHD and her other disorders. She said she can no longer live with the burden of her mental health issues and the trauma that caused them, including child sexual abuse, gang rape, and frequent foster homes, and says she will receive aid in dying in Belgium by the end of 2023.
However, Yves de Locht, a doctor in Belgium called it “rubbish” that she could simply book an assisted suicide as if Belgium is a “euthanasia dispenser.” He said he has read her emails, but he hasn’t seen her medical records.
“We do not refuse to meet (people like her) but we explain to them that the process can last months or even years,” he said. “This young woman has announced the end of her life at the end of the year. This date certainly doesn’t come from me. I need much more information before envisaging meeting her.”
He said that while he receives one phone call a day from people seeking suicide, he has recently received several from people suffering from depression. He said people get angry when he tells them that this is not possible. “One can euthanise young people but specialists must certify that the disease is incurable. Psychiatrists will have to put in place treatment and see how it evolves. [Olympe] may need to be hospitalised. It will be a very long and difficult process.”
Olympe’s announcement, and the apparent increase in euthanasia requests due to mental illness, come a year after word spread that a 23-year-old woman named Shanti De Corte was euthanized in Belgium due to depression and mental distress. De Corte had endured trauma as a teenager while at the Brussels airport when the terror bombing occurred in 2016, and medications had not helped her panic attacks. One Brussels neurologist, Paul Deltenre, argued that De Corte was euthanized prematurely, and that there were other treatments and options that had not been tried prior to killing her. However, no violations were found to have been made in her case. Now Olympe is seeking death for a similar reason.
Following Olympe’s announcement, Locht is calling on France to move forward with its decision of whether or not to legalize euthanasia. Earlier this month, the highest administrative court in France rejected two pro-euthanasia requests from Dignitas, a Swiss euthanasia organization that wants France to legalize assisted suicide.
