• hanabatake@lemmy.ml
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      4 hours ago

      I am french. I already saw these figures and tried to understand why it was like that. The figures might be technically correct but it doesn’t make sense to compare them with other countries. 5000 people dying each year of hunger, it would be revolting.

      We do not let people die of starvation in France, unless we think it is the best thing to do. We have this concept of “sédation profonde et continue”. Assisted suicide is prohibited in France. So people that suffer from uncurable decease can stop receiving food and hydratation until they die. They continue to receive painkiller or are even put in coma because letting them die that way is legal and considered the most human thing to do. A french christian newspaper wrote an article about it End of life: Are we really letting patients to die of hunger and thirst in France?. They are really opposed to assisted suicide and even them are OK with this process. So technically, we are letting people die of hunger.

      About people suffering from hunger, we have food bank to help them, meal costs 1€ at university… It is far from perfect but we are not letting people die like the figures would let imagine.

      About overseas regions, it is not that poor. The poorest overseas region, Mayotte, has been mostly destroyed by a cyclone two years ago. Both public services and NGOs thanks to a lot of donation reacted quickly to avoid famine. The situation is still bad but people are not starving.

      Hope I answer the question