We learned this week, the end of life law will be presented to the Council of Ministers in December. It’s a few months later than expected. Deciphering this social question with sociologist Jean Viard.
The timetable is finally set, the law on the end of life will be presented in December, to the Council of Ministers, which is later than planned. There was a citizens’ convention on the subject before that. And it is now Emmanuel Macron and the government who have the cards in hand, who will arbitrate. What is permitted today, we will remind you, is the deep and continuous sedation of a patient who is terminally ill. But no euthanasia, no assisted suicide.
franceinfo: Do you think there is a need to change the law?
Jean Viard: I was going to say the people are asking for it. The numbers are obvious. There are four 87% of people who want to create a debate in the National Assembly. There are 93% who actually demand the right to die with dignity. The numbers are huge. There are 69% who think that the law currently in force should be repealed.
Deep down, we overwhelmingly want to protect ourselves against suffering and, ultimately, to choose our end of life, which is easier to do when we are not on the objective, if I may say so. , and we see that very, very old people sometimes, it’s a different question than when you’re younger.
And then we must say at the same time that we are in a very conservative country, including that the medical profession does not necessarily want to do this kind of thing. On the theme “We are here to save lives”. And so there is a shift in how we are there to care for people, and how far we support them. And there, there is a profound cultural change.
France’s problem is that on all these subjects, ethics and morality, we are a horribly conservative country, and that is why when we compare with what is happening in Switzerland, in Belgium in particular, many French people, who will end their lives in Switzerland and Belgium, we realize that there is a gigantic gap.
And what is very surprising is that basically, public opinion is very unanimous. But it is also the medical profession, often perhaps not always, but still a lot, and above all, our decision-makers, our institutions, which are very conservative. There is a gap between the people and the elites. That’s how I read the situation.
And how can we explain that France is much more conservative than its neighboring countries?
It’s not easy to explain frankly, because I think it’s probably linked to our political system, which is very hierarchical, with indeed a very omnipresent President of the Republic. And in a certain way, there is a state body, great schools, which are very strong constituted bodies. There is little diversity in the people who govern us. There are all these reasons that make it seem like we are still Catholic France in the 1950s.
Now we are no longer that France, religions no longer have the same importance, but somewhere, they are still very present in the institutions and state apparatuses. France has a leap to make in the modern world, but this is also true in ethical questions, in scientific debates, in reflection on the transformation of industries, etc.
This country is still in the idea that the world of tomorrow must resemble the world of yesterday, a little transformed, when perhaps it has changed profoundly, and other countries are doing it more than us, countries around us which, a priori, are quite similar to us. And France cannot do it.
The main decision to come between now and December is whether or not to create active assistance in dying. And there is this hypothesis on the table of assisted suicide. Suicide is an object of sociological study. It is also something very taboo that we associate with the intimate sphere. And what impact does this have on this debate around the end of life?
It’s a subject we don’t want to talk about, as if we were ashamed of it, as if it wasn’t a subject. Well yes, protecting people from the risk of suicide, especially adolescents, in major crises in their lives, where people after a death, we know very well that the survivor can be fragile. So that requires anticipation, therefore having care policies and training people for that.
It’s a social issue. The role of institutions, the role of families, is to study, to protect, particularly people in good health, and to help those who see the end coming and who do not want to suffer, who want to of autonomy in suicide.
In Belgium, there is not only the situation of suffering, there is also great psychological suffering, people who find themselves all alone, who are very old, who no longer have anyone to talk to, for whom the life has not, in the sense, been recognized as a legitimate cause of suicide in Belgium. It’s not just the great physical suffering, it’s also the great psychological suffering.