Emmanuel Macron promises a bill for “assisted dying” under “strict conditions”, which will be presented in April

In an interview with “Libération” and “La Croix”, the head of state said he wanted to present the text in April to the Council of Ministers, before an examination in Parliament in May.

It will not be “neither a new right nor a freedom”but one “possibility”. Emmanuel Macron revealed, on Sunday March 10, the outlines of the future bill on the end of life, promised for almost a year, but which was slow to finalize. The text envisaged by the executive aims to allow certain people “to request assistance in dying under certain strict conditions”explains the head of state in an interview with The cross And Release. To qualify, patients must be of legal age, “capable of full and complete discernment”suffering from a “Incurable disease” with a vital prognosis “committed in the short or medium term” and faced with suffering “which cannot be relieved”according to the president.

If the criteria are met, it will belong to a medical team “to decide, collectively and transparently, what action it gives to this request”. In the event of a green light, a lethal substance would be prescribed to the person, which they could administer themselves or, if they “is not able to do this physically”, with the help of a loved one, a doctor or a nurse. The procedure could be done at home, in a nursing home or in a care establishment.

A strategy on palliative care unveiled “at the end of March”

The Head of State says he wants to transmit the text to the Council of State within ten days, before a presentation to the Council of Ministers in April and “a first reading in May” in Parliament. “On a text which raises such issues, we are not asking for urgency, there will be no accelerated procedure”he warns, thus suggesting that the parliamentary debates will extend over many months, even several years.

Besides the shutter on the“assisted dying”which will not mention either euthanasia or assisted suicide, the bill will contain a part on supportive care, which includes palliative care in particular. “We are going to put palliative care back at the heart of support”And this “even before the law is promulgated”, promises the head of state. The ten-year palliative care development strategy, which was initially due to be presented in January, will be revealed “end of March”he assures.