the criterion of vital prognosis engaged “in the short or medium term” replaced by the notion of condition “in advanced or terminal phase”

The criterion according to which patients must have their “vital prognosis committed in the short or medium term” to be eligible for assistance in dying was deleted, Thursday, May 16, by the deputies in committee during the examination of the bill on the end of life, replaced by the notion of affection “in advanced or terminal phase”. “We are no longer in the same law at all. (…) It is not the balance of the law that was desired”, regretted the president of the commission Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, who participated in the drafting of the bill when she was minister. The deputies defended their desire to clarify the text, given the difficulty of defining the medium term. “The short or medium term is not defined by the High Authority of Health”argued Renaissance MP Anne-Laurence Petel.

For opponents of this amendment, the notion of “advanced or terminal phase” remains unclear. They especially regret the disappearance of the expression “vital prognosis”. “Assistance in dying can only be considered at the end of life”, estimated Renaissance rapporteur Didier Martin. MP Annie Genevard (Les Républicains) expressed her “astonishment” after removing this “essential lock”. She and several MPs fear further expansions of the law during upcoming discussions.

The general rapporteur Olivier Falorni (MoDem) tried to reassure the opponents of this modification, recalling that another criterion required by law was that the patient suffers from an illness “serious and incurable”. “Serious and incurable defines that your vital prognosis is not only compromised but it is even seriously, very seriously compromised. And the advanced or terminal phase reinforces this system”he argued.

The text will be debated in the hemicycle from May 27.