MPs approve in committee the bill creating “assisted dying”

First major step taken. The deputies adopted in committee the bill on the end of life, opening for the first time in France “assisted dying” for certain patients, on the night of Friday May 17 to Saturday May 18.

The deputies adopted Thursday in committee one of the main articles of the bill, which authorizes the use of a lethal substance for a person who requests it, subject to conditions. But on Friday, the criterion according to which patients must have their “vital prognosis committed in the short or medium term” to access assistance in dying has been replaced by the notion of affection “in advanced or terminal phase”.

This formulation is criticized by the government and the majority, who particularly 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. 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”. The text will be debated in the hemicycle from May 27.