He has Charcot's disease: how did sports journalist Charles Biétry communicate during his interview ?

Charles Biétry during the interview given to TF1. Capture X @7a8

Charles Biétry was the guest of the show “Sept à Huit” this Sunday evening. The famous French sports journalist, suffering from Charcot's disease, notably addressed the subject of the law on the end of life.

Suffering from Charcot's disease, journalist Charles Biétry, a figure in sports and the media, hopes for “a surge [from] French leaders” on the subject of the end of life, failing which he will go “to commit suicide in Switzerland”.

“I expect a surge from our leaders”

“I blame the deputies and senators – not all of them – who did not do the job” and have “forgotten the French”, he says on the show “Sept à Huit” on Sunday on TF1.

The examination of the text of the law on the end of life has been delayed by many months. “I expect a surge from our leaders, that they vote for this law unanimously”, urges Charles Biétry, 81 years old. This law would give “serenity in freedom”, he judges.

Prime Minister François Bayrou has made it known that he would like this bill, whose examination was interrupted by the dissolution of the National Assembly last summer, to be separated to deal with palliative care on the one hand and assisted dying on the other.

200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000

“Going to commit suicide in Switzerland is not my end-of-life dream” and “palliative care, if there is a law, will perhaps do the trick”, Charles Biétry expects. But “if in France the conditions are not met for a gentle and relatively calm death, I will go to Switzerland”, he insists.

Talking with artificial intelligence

For the show, the former journalist had typed his answers in advance on a computer. If he can still move to a certain extent, it is an artificial intelligence that reproduced his voice for this television program. Because “the words are in my head and I can't get them out”, he explains, saying: “I have a few weeks or months left to live.”

“I want to make the most of it and do everything in my power to help research and other patients”, he says from his residence in Carnac (Morbihan).

Charcot's disease, incurable, is characterized by progressive paralysis of the muscles, and a life expectancy not exceeding three to five years, once the diagnosis is made.

In “La dernière vague”, his memoirs to be published on January 29 by Flammarion, Charles Biétry recounts the announcement of the disease in August 2022, and “la colère sourde”, the “feeling of injustice” which then rise. “This Charcot is strong”, but “I'm at war”, he assures on TF1, confiding that he is taking a treatment not authorized in France.

Charles Biétry has left his mark on the world of sport and the media for the last 50 years, having revolutionized the relationship between football and television. He is also the author of a scoop on the death of Israeli athletes taken hostage at the Munich Olympic Games on September 6, 1972, when he was a reporter for AFP.