(Paris) French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Sunday that a bill paving the way for “assisted dying” under “strict conditions” would be presented in April to the Council of Ministers, with a view to a first reading in May to the National Assembly.
Adult patients, “capable of full and complete discernment”, suffering from an “incurable illness” with a “short or medium term vital prognosis” and suffering “refractory” suffering (which cannot be relieved) will be able to “request to be able to be helped to die,” the head of state told the newspapers La Croix and Libération.
Minors and patients suffering from psychiatric or neurodegenerative illnesses which impair discernment, such as Alzheimer’s, will therefore be excluded.
In the event of a favorable collegial opinion from the medical team, a lethal substance will be prescribed to the person, which they can administer themselves, or with the help of a third party if they “are not in control”. able to do it physically.
Even if this act can be compared to a form of assisted suicide, the president assures that he wanted to avoid this term, or that of euthanasia, the debate on the subject being lively in France.
The current law, known as Claeys-Leonetti, the latest version of which dates from 2016, allows “deep and continuous sedation” for patients with a short-term vital prognosis and unrelievable suffering, but does not authorize either assisted suicide or ‘euthanasia.
The French president also announced a strengthening of palliative care. Over ten years, “that’s a billion euros more that we are going to invest there”, in addition to the 1.6 billion currently devoted to supportive care, he specifies.
Changing the 2016 end-of-life law was a campaign promise by Emmanuel Macron, but after setting up a citizens’ convention on the subject, he postponed his decision several times.
The head of state, who has long been considering modifying French legislation on this sensitive subject, says he has personally written his own “advance directives” on the care he wishes, or not, to receive at the end of life.
In several European countries, legislation authorizes euthanasia and/or assisted suicide. Belgium is, with the Netherlands, one of the first two European countries to have authorized euthanasia 20 years ago.
In Spain, a law legalizing end-of-life assistance, which came into force in June 2021, allows euthanasia and medically assisted suicide, while in Switzerland there are different forms of assistance in death.