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French President Emmanuel Macron’s government will propose a bill that will create a “right to die” for adults with incurable diseases who meet strict conditions.
Macron said the proposed reforms, which will be debated in parliament in May, would use the term “aid in dying” rather than more polarizing references to euthanasia or assisted suicide, which also have different meanings.
“The new framework proposes a possible path, in a specific situation, with precise criteria, in which medical decision-making will also have a role to play,” Macron told the newspapers Libération and La Croix.
If finalized, France would become one of a handful of European countries — including Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium — and several U.S. states, where terminally ill patients can choose to die. According to the British group Dignity in Dying, around 200 million people worldwide have legal access to some form of assisted dying.
Macron’s decision to move forward with the proposal comes after months of hesitation on what remains a sensitive issue in France.
A citizens’ conference convened to discuss the issue last year revealed broad public support for the creation of the “right to die”, as well as greater access to palliative care, which aims to mitigate the suffering of terminally ill patients and which has long been little has been invested. France.
But religious groups and the Catholic Church have launched a significant lobbying campaign against any facility that allows sick people to choose to die.
The proposed law would apply only to specific cases of adults suffering from incurable conditions and in a healthy mental state, and could also take into account levels of both physical and psychological pain. An eligible person would need a medical diagnosis of a terminal illness, which contrasts with some assisted suicide systems, where the individual has more freedom to decide.
For example, Macron said that while a terminal cancer patient could request the procedure, a person with a neurodegenerative condition such as Alzheimer’s or a psychiatric condition could not due to doubts about their ability to give informed consent.
Macron’s decision to move forward with the “right to die” comes shortly after he supported the push started by female parliamentarians that finally enshrined the right to abortion in the constitution last week. Opposition politicians have accused Macron of seeking refuge in social issues rather than a more ambitious legislative agenda, after several parliamentary battles over pension reform and immigration.
The planned legislation has already sparked some resistance, including from palliative care associations and religious representatives.
“We Catholic bishops ask that society help people to live and live until the end, until death,” said Mgr. Matthieu Rouge. “What helps people die humanely is not a lethal injection, but affection, care and attention.”
Expressing their “concerns, anger and sadness”, health worker unions questioned proposed safeguards in the system and said the government is pushing disguised underinvestment in palliative care.
“Removing sick people to eliminate a problem at lower cost, that is what this announcement aims to do,” 15 different healthcare unions said in a joint statement.