Nobel prizewinner de Duve dies in euthanasia act

A BELGIAN university confirmed yesterday that biochemist Christian de Duve, who won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1974, has died in an act of euthanasia. He was 95.

His university, UCL in Louvain-la-Neuve, confirmed it was a case of euthanasia but did not disclose the method.

De Duve shared the Nobel Prize with two other scientists for their work and discoveries on the structural and functional organisation of the cell.

One month before his death, last Saturday, he took the decision to end his life through euthanasia and had granted a major interview to the Le Soir newspaper on the agreement it would be published after his death.

He said was becoming weaker and decided to plan, as he put it, “my own disappearance”.