The National Academy of Medicine is in favor of a right to assisted suicide

While the government’s text for “active assistance in dying” must be unveiled “by the end of summer”, the National Academy of Medicine is in favor of a right to assisted suicide. In an opinion, issued Monday, July 17, the authority specifies that this right would be given “exceptionally”and rules out any recourse to euthanasia.

The extension of palliative care services throughout France is “imperative”according to the opinion. If the right to assisted suicide is retained in the future bill, the National Academy of Medicine specifies the guarantees to be put in place. For example, “a collegial evaluation occurring upstream of any decision” Or “an authorization and prescription without administration of the lethal product by doctors and caregivers“, that is to say that the patient must be able to carry out the lethal gesture himself.

The body, which brings together doctors, surgeons, biologists, pharmacists and even veterinarians, thus distinguishes this right to assisted suicide from euthanasia, where a third party directly injects a lethal product into the patient who allegedly committed it. asked. In its opinion, the National Academy of Medicine develops the reasons for its opposition to this act, which, according to it, transgresses “The Hippocratic Oath” : “professionals and members of end-of-life support associations oppose it and fear this practice”.