Euthanasia usually sparks alot of controversy. One woman in France sparked more than that when she requested assistance for her suicide.  When a disease gets so difficult...and is slowly killing you what do you do?  ~SR

The below article is courtesy of CNN

PARIS, France -- A French woman severely disfigured by facial tumors has been been found dead just two days after a court rejected her request for an assisted suicide.

It was not immediately clear how Sebire died.

Sebire had suffered from esthesioneuroblastoma, a rare and incurable form of cancer for eight years, developing tumors in her nasal passages and sinuses that distorted her face and caused her nose and eyes to bulge.

The woman from Dijon, in eastern France, said drugs were ineffective against the excruciating pain caused by the condition and there was no reason doctors should not be permitted to hasten her death.

Assisted suicide is illegal in France, however. The law permits only passive euthanasia -- removing feeding and hydration tubes when a person is in a coma, or inducing a coma and then removing the tubes.

Sebire's lawyer had tried to convince a French court that it was "barbaric" to put her through the ordeal of dying slowly in an artificial coma, something that could take up to two weeks while her three children looked on in anguish.

The court turned down the appeal Monday.

At the same time, Sebire wrote a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy appealing for help, but he responded by suggesting top doctors should reexamine her for a second opinion.

Her plight and the questions it raised caused so much public debate in France that when Sebire was found dead Wednesday night, it made front-page news in heavyweight papers including Le Figaro and Le Parisien.

CNN Senior International Correspondent Jim Bitterman in Paris said the Sebire had many supporters in France with hundreds of people writing to her to express their backing.

"One of the reasons for this is this woman was a relatively young mother of three children and many people could sympathize. People think 'what would I do in the same circumstances.'"

A French group called the Association for the Right to Die with Dignity, which took up Sebire's cause, believes laws must be changed to take such cases into account.

"It is not the liberty of a politician or a doctor -- it's the liberty of the person who is suffering, who has a terminal disease," said Jean-Luc Romero, president of the group.

"It's only the decision of the people who have a terminal disease to decide (whether they may die)."

Others disagree. "It isn't because a citizen says 'I want this' that we should modify the law," said Patrick Verspieren, a Jesuit bio-ethics expert. "The law is already quite open."

France's prime minister, health and justice ministers all made clear they did not believe changes in French law are needed.