The Head of State is to receive several personalities for dinner to discuss the theme of the end of life, including representatives of the main religions, this Thursday.
Emmanuel Macron invites to dinner, Thursday, March 9, 2023, the main representatives of religions, caregivers, as well as philosophers and the authors of the current Claeys-Léonetti law to talk about the end of life. This dinner comes as many working groups have been studying for weeks the possibility of introducing active assistance in dying in France, namely euthanasia or assisted suicide.
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If, officially, the Head of State has not yet made his decision, for several weeks, Emmanuel Macron remains attentive to all the different parties. Thursday evening, he will thus listen to the Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist representatives, opposed to any development of the current law on the end of life, but also Jean-François Delfraissy, the president of the Ethics Committee which opens the door to active assistance in dying, but under conditions, as well as Alain Claeys and Jean Leonetti, the authors of the current law. In France, the end of life of incurable patients has been governed by the Claeys-Leonetti law since 2016. It prohibits assisted suicide or euthanasia, but it allows in a very controlled way “deep and continuous sedation” until death. for the terminally ill and in great pain.
“A spirit of openness”
Will Emmanuel Macron open up the possibility of active assistance in dying? If so, euthanasia or assisted suicide? For which patient profile? An adviser analyzes:It would be inappropriate to give its opinion now when the Citizens’ Convention made up of 185 French people has been working on the subject for weeks and will deliver its conclusions in three weeks.“.
A restitution of the work planned at the same time for the group of parliamentarians, as well as the group of caregivers, and the two ministers concerned, Agnès Firmin Le Bodo and Olivier Véran, responsible for thinking about this file. It is therefore later, at the beginning of April, that the Head of State will announce his decision to change the law – or not – towards active assistance in dying.
The Citizens’ Convention has come out in majority in favor of improving the “current end-of-life support framework” developing in particular palliative care, independently of the possible legalization of a “active assistance in dying“. At the end of February, Olivier Véran had indicated that the ongoing debate on the end of life and the possibility of authorizing a “active assistance in dying“will lead”presumably” on a law, while remaining cautious about its content. “I note that there is clearly a spirit of openness towards the legalization of active assistance in dying in the form of euthanasia, assisted suicide“, had thus said the spokesman of the government on France Inter.