Karsai has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, an incurable, progressive, and fatal neurological disease that is slowly robbing him of his ability to control his muscles, including his ability to speak. He wants the right to die before he becomes completely incapacitated, stripped of his dignity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more information: Karsai v. Hungary<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The European Court for Human Rights offers information about the Nov. 28\u201329 case <\/a>involving D\u00e1niel Karsai’s request for the right to die with dignity. All hearings are available for viewing, on on-demand and delayed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n In Hungary, assisted death is a crime, so Karsai is appealing to the ECHR, which will hold a hearing Nov. 27\u201328. The hearing will be conducted in English, one of the court\u2019s two official languages, French being the other, so Karsai knew he needed help to deliver his personal statement, both with English words that are difficult for a Hungarian to pronounce and help to contend with how the disease is ravaging his speaking ability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So he turned to a fellow Hungarian who is a Bates faculty member: Kati Vecsey, a senior lecturer in theater, vocal director for all Bates theater productions, and a noted speech and language pathologist and therapist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A member of the Bates faculty since 1996 and currently chair of the Department of Theater and Dance, Vecsey earned a doctorate in developmental and educational psychology from E\u00f6tv\u00f6s L\u00f3r\u00e1nd University in Budapest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At Bates, Vecsey teaches courses, has served as vocal director for well over 100 theater productions, was the long-time adviser of the student Robinson Players theater club, and is widely published in her field. Well known in Hungary for her voice work, she was awarded the Farkas Kempelen Plaque Award from the Hungarian Association of Phonetics, Phoniatrics and Logopedics for research and professional contributions to her field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes, the goal of Vecsey\u2019s voice teaching is to train someone\u2019s voice toward something different, whether helping a theater student adopt a British accent or helping someone transform their very identity. In the early 2000s, for example, she worked with author and then-Colby professor Jenny Boylan in her transition to becoming a woman by helping Boyle achieve an optimal pitch and varied inflection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With Karsai, the goal is to help him be the best Daniel Karsai possible, vocally speaking, for as long as possible. \u201cMy work with Daniel is not different from what I do during voice coaching with actors,\u201d Vecsey says. \u201cI work to nurture the confidence and self-reliance \u2014 so vital to create the optimum conditions for spontaneous, truthful, and healthy expression.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Karsai is no stranger to the European court, having worked there for four years in the mid-2000s, helping to prepare more than 1,000 draft decisions in English and in French. Since 2011, he has run his own law office in Budapest dealing with constitutional law and human rights issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For now, Karsai uses a wheelchair but is still able to go to work at his law firm each day. Before his illness, his English was already quite good, in terms of his vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure. But his speech is now slower and slurred due to an ALS-related condition known as dysarthria that Vecsey studied during her training. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe muscles become weak and tight, limiting tongue and\/or jaw movement,\u201d she explains. Swallowing is difficult, leading to a build-up of saliva in the mouth, and \u201che has developed hoarseness and sounds more nasal than before his illness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As an example of Karsai\u2019s very good English, here\u2019s a nearly verbatim text of how Karsai describes the first few months after receiving his ALS diagnosis in August 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAfter the death sentence, I needed four months to take my s–t together. I’m sorry. Really, the first four months after I received the diagnosis, 25 August last year, I suffer from depression and anxiety, I mean in a medical sense. And with the help of amazing psychiatrist, and the medicines that were necessary, by the end of December, I find back to the light. And then I could restart to live, not just fighting with this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neither Vecsey nor Karsai is particularly worried about his accent. \u201cWe Hungarians have a terrible accent, even if we are not ill,\u201d he jokes. And, he adds, few people who speak before the ECHR are native English speakers. \u201cYou hear many accents. So it’s not strange.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Hungarians, difficult sounds to pronounce in English words include the W sound in \u201cwhat\u201d or the TH sound in \u201cteeth\u201d or \u201cthree,\u201d \u201cwhere you put your tongue between bottom and upper teeth, that\u2019s a lisp in Hungarian, and you get sent to speech therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overcoming an accent is a great challenge, she says, because an accent is integral to a person\u2019s physiology. Getting rid of one is not the same as putting one on, like Meryl Streep using a Polish accent in Sophie\u2019s Choice<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYour entire mouth develops around the formation of sounds for your primary language,\u201d Vecsey says. \u201cSo when you learn a second language, you will have difficulty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Knowing Karsai\u2019s voice before ALS is a key concept, says Vecsey. \u201cThe knowledge of a \u2018healthy voice\u2019 is very important because you are not trying to teach a person something new, but what they know but are having difficulty doing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Appearing on a Hungarian talk show four years ago, looking fit, relaxed, and strong, Karsai speaks in a measured and calm voice with subtle inflections. Now, Vecsey is helping him manage pitch, tone, rhythm, and volume. \u201cYou can hear that his voice is already strained.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Using her theatrical chops, Vecsey is also coaching Karsai on his performance. He has appeared before the court several times, and will be reading from a prepared text. \u201cSo it’s not alien for me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGenerally it’s much harder to think and speak at the same time in a foreign language in a high-tension situation. This hearing is really like in the movies: full courtroom, big media attention,\u201d including a documentary film team from Hungary that is capturing his story. \u201cAnd so I would say the psychological part is the most difficult one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n During our interview, Karsai jokes about wearing his jiu jitsu robe to the hearing. Vecsey ran with it, thinking theatrically: Maybe not the robe, she said, but perhaps he could wear his brown belt around his neck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n D\u00e1niel<\/em> Karsai appears on a Hungarian talk show four years ago, prior to his ALS diagnosis.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n His approach is \u201cpractice, practice, practice. My sensei, my master, always said that if you can do something with 130 percent perfection in practice, in real-life situation that will be 80 or 100 percent. So this is what I try to achieve, practice as much as possible, and then I can perform well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if he makes a mistake, \u201cWho cares? So what? I correct myself and go on. So I should not be afraid of making mistakes. Everybody will think that this is the illness, not my weak English that made the error.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n To which Vecsey quickly interjects a friendly jab: \u201cYou\u2019re telling me that you’re hiding behind your illness now when it comes to English?!\u201d Indeed, the warmth between the two Hungarians comes through. \u201cDaniel is a genuinely fine human being: charismatic, compassionate, and great character and integrity. And a fantastic sense of humor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vecsey and Karsai have been meeting on Zoom weekly since summer. (He is also working with two other speech and language pathologists in Hungary.) \u201cWe have fun conversations, and I try to evaluate his speaking skills, ask questions about what he feels when he speaks, and give him feedback and suggestions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis public fight gives me strength because I enjoy it. I enjoy this conversation because we are discussing an issue which intellectually gives me passion and strength.”<\/p>\nD\u00e1niel<\/em> Karsai<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n \u201cFun\u201d might not be anyone\u2019s idea of what Karsai is having these days, but the word comes up more than a few times during our interview. For Karsai, the capacity to still have fun \u2014 to do what he loves doing, to have dignity, to feel purposeful \u2014 is what it means to have a life still worth living. The capacity to have fun is one measuring stick for being human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And for Karsai the human rights lawyer, mounting a major legal battle against what he feels is an unjust law is a blast. \u201cThis public fight gives me strength because I enjoy it. I enjoy this conversation because we are discussing an issue which intellectually gives me passion and strength,\u201d he says over Zoom. \u201cI even feel much less tired than one hour ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Published on Nov. 20, 2023, this brief video shows D\u00e1niel Karsai two years ago during his jiu-jitsu training and brown belt ceremony, and recently as he tries to get up from the ground<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n The European Court for Human Rights hears cases brought against its 46 member states for alleged human rights violations, and its rulings are binding and are considered to have a significant impact on the interpretation and application of human rights law in Europe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2023\/11\/Karsai_Vecsey_124050PM.webp\")
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