After a vote in the Senate, the government’s bill to combat sectarian abuses arrives today in committee at the National Assembly. The goal: to strengthen the possible sanctions against the new gurus.
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After a vote in the Senate, the government’s bill to combat sectarian aberrations arrives in committee at the National Assembly on Wednesday February 7. The aim is to strengthen the possible sanctions against the new gurus who have been riding conspiracy theorists, the anti-vaccine phenomenon and alternative pseudo-therapies since the start of the Covid epidemic. The number of reports to the authorities has exploded in the last three years.
If the Senate deleted article 4, the key article of the text, according to information from franceinfo, the majority deputies will reintroduce it into the text. He is the one who creates a crime “provocation to abandonment or abstention of care”. Clearly, anyone who encourages or convinces a patient to stop their treatment and thus exposes them to a serious health risk will face one year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros.
A law which targets “those who profit from the misery of others”
The government is targeting new pseudo therapists who have been increasing in number since Covid. Gemppi, an association supporting victims, receives more than 300 reports per year in connection with these pseudo-therapists. Didier Pachoud, the president of this association fighting against sectarian aberrations based in Marseille, recounts the recent case of a patient: “Although he was near the end of his life, therefore subject to great suffering, he refused painkillers because his naturopath told him that the more he suffered, the closer he got to recovery.”
This article 4 as it is designed would not affect the freedom of people to treat themselves as they wish: “It’s a law that targets dangerous predators or charlatans, only predators and those who profit from the misery of others. It’s those who are in the crosshairs, it’s not their client-patient followers “, precise Didier Pachoud. According to him, patients, blinded, have difficulty considering themselves as victims and trust these pseudo-therapists sometimes to the point of death.
