Excerpted from "The Life Before Us" by Romain Gary
(pp. 155-156, and p. 162)
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In the morning Dr.Katz came up to give Madame Rosa a check-up. And as soon as it was over we went out on the landing and I knew that calamity was creeping up to our door.
"She'll have to go to the hospital. She can't stay here. I'm going to call an ambulance."
"What will they do to her at the hospital?"
"They'll give her the proper care. She may go on living for quite some time if not longer. I've seen persons in her condition prolonged for years."
Hell and damnation, I thought, but I didn't say anything in front of the doctor. I hesitated a moment. Then I asked:
"Look, Doctor, just between Jews, couldn't you abortion her?"
He seemed sincerely flabbergasted.
"What? Abortion her? What are you talking about?"
"That's right. Abortion her. To stop her suffering."
Dr. Katz was so overcome he had to sit down. He held his head in his hands and sighed several times in succession, raising his eyes to heaven as customary.
"No, my little Momo. We can't do that. Euthanasia is absolutely forbidden by law. We're living in a civilized country. You don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh yes, I do. I'm an Algerian. I know perfectly well what I'm talking about. In Algeria they've got the sacred right of people to self-determination."
Dr. Katz looked at me as if I'd scared him. His mouth was wide open and he didn't say a word. Sometimes I get good and sick of the way people refuse to understand.
"Do you believe in the sacred right of peoples, or don't you?"
"Of-course I believe in it," Said Dr. Katz. He even got up from the step he was sitting on to show his respect.
"Of-course I believe in it, it's a good and fine thing. But I don't see the connection."
"The connection is that if you believe in it you'll have to admit that Madame Rosa has the sacred right of peoples to self-determine herself just like everybody else. If she wants to be abortioned, she has a perfect right. And you should do it for her because it's got to be a Jewish doctor to steer clear of antisemitism. Jews have no business making each other suffer. It's disgusting."
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"Momo, tell me the whole truth."
"Madame Rosa, I don't know the whole truth. I don't even know who knows it."
"What did Dr. Katz tell you?"
"He said we'd have to put you in the hospital and they'll take care of you and prevent you from dying. You can live a long time yet."
It made my heart ache to talk like that. I even tried to smile as if it was good news I was telling her.
"What do they call this sickness I have?"
I swallowed my saliva.
"It's not cancer. Madame Rosa, I swear it isn't."
"But what is it, Momo? What do the doctors call it?"
"You can live like that for years."
"Like what?"
I didn't answer.
"Momo, don't lie to me. I am an old Jewish woman. Whatever can be done to a man has been done to me."
She said mensch. In Yiddish a man and a woman are the same.
"I want to know. Some things they have no right to do to a mensch."
"It's nothing, Madame Rosa. A person can perfectly well live like that."
"Like what, Momo?"
That was as much as I could stand. The tears were choking me inside. I ran over to her, she took me in her arms, and I shouted:
"Like a vegetable, Madame Rosa, like a vegetable! They want to make you live like a vegetable!"
She didn't say anything. She only perspired a little.
"When are they coming to get me?"
"I don't know. In a day or two. Dr. Katz is very fond of you, Madame Rosa. He says he won't separate us unless he has to."
"I won't go," said Madame Rosa.
"I don't know what to do, Madame Rosa. They're all such bastards. They refuse to abortion you."
She seemed very calm. She only wanted to wash herself, because she'd pissed in her pants.
She was beautiful, now that I think of it. It depends on the way you think of a person.
"It's the Gestapo," she said.
She didn't say anything after that.
I was cold during the night. I got up and put another blanket over her.
....
