Ten members of the Ultime Liberté association, which campaigns in France for the legalization of assisted suicide, have been arrested for trafficking in the banned suicide drug pentobarbital.

Founded in 2009, Ultime Liberté is the radical wing of the right-to-die movement in France. It claims to have 3,000 members scattered throughout the country.

"Our goal is that euthanasia can legally have the right of citizenship in France " the magazine Marianne was told by one of its members. Ultime Liberté wishes to " obtain for any capable person the legal recognition of the freedom to choose the time, place and terms of his death recognized by a law including assisted suicide, or voluntary euthanasia when the person is in a state where he can no longer communicate and he has written his advance directives."

The activists, aged between 60 and 80, are accused of having helped other members of the association to obtain pentobarbital. Does Ultime Liberté buy it and resell it to its members? Not officially, but it appears that the arrested members of the association had sent encrypted messages giving information about how to obtain the drug.

Michael Cook is editor of BioEdge

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