MEP LR François-Xavier Bellamy, executive vice-president of the party, indicated on Tuesday on franceinfo that he was not opposed to the idea of a referendum on the question.
“I am very concerned about the opacity of the process of this Convention” citizen on the end of life who spoke out for a “active assistance in dying”said the number 2 of the Republicans François-Xavier Bellamy Tuesday April 4 on franceinfo. “This method poses an absolutely major democratic problem”said the MEP, considering that the citizens’ convention was “oriented” and “the real debate must take place first in Parliament”.
A debate “oriented”according to Executive Vice President LR Car “we should have listened to those who are in charge of implementing” active assistance in dying, “caregivers”. “There will not have been a single visit to a palliative care center”, he wondered about the work of the 184 members of the Convention, citizens drawn by lot who participated for three months in intense debates on the subject. He does not say he is opposed to a referendum on the question, a method which seems to him “clearer and more transparent”.
A “changeover” for the healthcare system
According to François-Xavier Bellamy, “all of this constitutes a shift for our healthcare system as a whole (…) the idea that death can be administered as a treatment, we are faced with an absolutely fundamental choice”explained the MEP. “When the suffering is too great, we must begin by telling ourselves that we have failed”, he continued, arguing that“today science and medicine can put an end to suffering”.
The MEP pointed “the major subject of application of the existing law”. Current legislation, set by the Claeys-Leonetti law of 2016, allows caregivers to irreversibly sedate patients near death, whose suffering is intolerable. For the number 2 of the Republicans, “there are not enough palliative care beds (…), two thirds of people who might need palliative care do not have access to it today”.
“Emmanuel Macron speaks in a very pompous way of a French model at the end of life”, he snapped, while the President of the Republic announced Monday that he wanted to put a place a “French model of the end of life” and that he was expecting a government bill on the matter “by the end of the summer”. “I see that there are two possible models. Either effectively to someone who is suffering, we respond by coming to treat their suffering and today, we have the means to relieve the suffering. Either we actually respond to it by proposing death and when this is the case, we can see very well how all the safeguards disappear”he developed.