Biographical statement of Jean-Luc ROMERO


Jean-Luc Romero concurrently holds many administrative, political, associative activities which are all turned towards only one aim: the human one.

He is the director of the social centre of a commune near Paris.

On the political level, he is an elected official of the regional council of Ile-de-France, former national secretary of the Radical Party and of the UMP party, the president of the new party “Aujourd’hui Autrement”. Furthermore, he has recently been given the award of “French politician of year 2001” by readers of VSD, a leading French weekly.

On the associative level, he is the president of Elus Locaux Contre le Sida - ELCS (Local representatives against AIDS). The aim of the association ELCS, which he has been presiding over since it was put together in 1995, is to mobilize and to urge French elected representatives into taking part in the fight against AIDS and into developing risk reduction policies towards drug addicts. The association gathers 13.000 representatives of all political families, among which 100 members of the Parliament. He was the first French politician – and also the only one so far – to acknowledge publicly his seropositivity, which was discovered in 1985.

His activity as a militant for the fight against aids enabled him to be appointed by the Prime Minister as a member of the National Council of AIDS, a governmental agency in charge of “delivering its opinion on all the AIDS issues within the society and proposing, along with the government, all kinds of useful proposals”.

Being himself HIV positive, Jean-Luc ROMERO, has been confronted directly to the issue of death, for many years, for himself and for many friends of his who died. The question of dignity became a central topic of his considerations. This is why he became the president of the Association for the right to die with dignity. ADMD now almost has 45 000 members. ADMD campaigns for the right to end one’s life in a peaceful, dignified way. This can be achieved only if one is given full freedom of choice regarding one’s last moment in the near or in the distant future. Ever since 1980, ADMD has been actively seeking the recognition for everyone’s right to receive better pain relief treatment, to refuse unwanted life-prolonging treatment, and to be granted a gentle death at one’s own request.

Jean-Luc ROMERO is also the author of five books.