The end-of-life bill, which aims to strengthen palliative care and establish assistance in dying, is debated from Monday in the National Assembly.
In seven years of mandate, it is “the first time” that she will vote against the majority line of her party. MP Frédérique Meunier, elected Les Républicains de Corrèze, intends to speak out “in favour” of the bill on the end of life, debated from Monday May 27 in the hemicycle of the National Assembly. This sensitive text, which aims to strengthen palliative care and establish assistance in dying in the form of assisted suicide or euthanasia, is strongly opposed on the benches of the right and the extreme right. It is, on the other hand, widely supported by the presidential camp and the left.
“Ugly Duckling” assumed within her party, Frédérique Meunier, 63, is not the only elected official to express a dissonant voice. Before its arrival in plenary session, the bill has already been the subject of a first examination in committee, which highlighted, within each political family, the presence of deputies ready to swim against the tide. In 2021, already, an article of a bill establishing a “active medical assistance in dying” had been voted for by 240 deputies from the left, center and right, despite the opposition of 48 elected officials, again from the left, center and right. The text was not adopted due to lack of time.
On this bill, “each group will give everyone the freedom to vote”observed the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, in March. “Freedom to vote, with us, is all the time”, slips the communist deputy Pierre Dharréville. This elected representative from Bouches-du-Rhône, 48 years old, knows something about this: for years he has been trying to alert his left-wing colleagues about assisted dying. “This law risks creating new inequalities in the face of death, because we do not benefit from the same material conditions and the same ability to be cared for at the end of life”, he says. For him, the most vulnerable will be the most inclined, even forced, to shorten their lives due to lack of sufficient support.
“The left must stand alongside the most vulnerable, it’s in its DNAurges Pierre Dharréville. We must tell them ‘we care about you’, by providing them with palliative care, by passing a law for old age, and not ‘you can go’, as if some lives were not worth living.”, he believes. Hence his “total incomprehension” facing red, pink or green elected officials in favor of assisted dying.
“I am still waiting for someone to show me that this liberal measure is left-wing.”
Pierre Dharréville, communist deputy, opposed to assisted dyingat franceinfo
For “open the debate” in his camp, this former journalist Humanity invited all left-wing deputies, at the beginning of April, to an evening of reflection organized with five other elected officials from the PCF, the PS and the Ecologists, all opposed to assisted dying. Among them, the socialist Dominique Potier, 60, deputy for Meurthe-et-Moselle. “Conservative” assumed, he sees in the massive support of the left for this text the drift of a “progressivism” launched into a “infinite quest for individual rights”. “It’s a dead end for our societies”he believes, calling to find “the compass of fraternity and respect for human life”.
A man of the left, Dominique Potier is also a man of faith, a Catholic, like Pierre Dharréville. “Everyone has their spiritual and philosophical foundations, but I do not need to evoke mine to lead a left-wing fight, he defends. I don’t see what’s exotic about the left in wanting to defend the most vulnerable.”
Relatively isolated on the left, Pierre Dharréville and Dominique Potier found allies on the benches of the majority or the right. On May 16, they joined forces with Renaissance MP Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet and LR MP Patrick Hetzel to welcome a “parliamentary morning” organized with the French Society for Support and Palliative Care (Sfap), fiercely opposed to assisted dying. In the fall, they also signed a transpartisan forum in The Express to demand that assistance in dying does not appear in the same text as the development of palliative care.
Signatory of this forum, the elected MoDem Blandine Brocard is one of the rare representatives of the majority openly hostile to the bill. A position all the more delicate as the text comes from his own camp. “It is certain that it would be easier to be forsmiles the 42-year-old Rhône MP. But this is not my vision of society. Living together means supporting life until the end, without letting anyone down and without upsetting the vocation of caregivers.”
“Introducing assisted dying before even having palliative care everywhere is really putting the cart before the horse.”
Blandine Brocard, MP from the MoDem group, opposed to assisted dyingat franceinfo
Listening to her, Blandine Brocard is “far from being alone” on this line in the majority. “Many are asking questions and this already shows a certain courage”she greets, in the face of polls and “politically correct” of progressivism, which weighs as “a screed of lead” on his comrades. On this topic “difficult”, “the truth is neither on one side nor the other”she defends, assuring “advance with velvet steps” in his own reflection.
Frédérique Meunier also needs courage to assert her difference with Les Républicains. “Before, I thought that life was sacred and that it should not be touchedsays the Corrèze MP. But through reading and hearing in recent years, I have become aware of certain suffering and the importance of allowing patients to choose their end of life. Choice is a freedom that we must have until the end.”
In her solitary shift in favor of assisted dying, the elected official had to convince herself that she was not “not a bad girl”. “When we hear the fears of an open door to assistance in dying for the elderly or disabled, it can raise doubts, but we must not go into this delirium.”
“I don’t have to feel guilty, I don’t want people to die, I just want to help them end their lives better, with dignity.”
Frédérique Meunier, LR MP, in favor of assisted dyingat franceinfo
MP LR argues that a third of her party’s elected officials could vote in favor of the bill, following the debates. “Some of the refractory people come from the medical profession and cannot imagine causing death, she explains. I understand that, but it is the disease that condemns these patients, who will die anyway. Others are guided by religious values. I understand them too, but I invite everyone to get away from their preconceptions.”
Shaking up his colleagues is the specialty of another LR MP, Maxime Minot, also in favor of assisted dying. Entered on the right in the name of the “work value”this 36-year-old elected official from Oise, homosexual, stands out from his political family on social issues, as he demonstrated by voting for the PMA for all in 2021. “I got involved in this party with a pilgrim’s staff, telling myself that I had a role to play in freeing it from conservative constraints”he preaches.
In his fight for assisted dying, a “right” so far “reserved for those who can afford the trip to Switzerland or Belgium”this former geriatric caregiver has sometimes formed a strange team with an elected official from La France insoumise, Caroline Fiat, also a former caregiver. “On certain texts, we clash, but, on such a transpartisan subject, we become one”he laughs, evoking his “transpartisan friendship” with the elected LFI. He also likes to overcome divisions through forums on the end of life, as he did last summer in The world with deputies from the left and the majority.
Absent from the various collective forums signed in recent months, the deputies of the National Rally are nonetheless affected by dissensions. Faithful to the line of Marine Le Pen, “About two thirds of the group’s elected representatives are against assisted dying and a third, like me, are forsays Thomas Ménage, deputy for Loiret. It’s not always pleasant to put yourself in the minority, but we all respect each other and that doesn’t prevent us from finding ourselves on certain points, such as the establishment of safeguards and the guarantee of access to palliative care. “
This spokesperson for the RN group in the Assembly defends his position “pragmatic” And “common sense”in the name of the “dignity” and some “freedom of choice”.
“I listened to my personal feelings, asking myself what I would want for myself or my loved ones.”
Thomas Ménage, RN deputy, in favor of assisted dyingat franceinfo
However, the 32-year-old elected official said “to understand” the majority of reluctance among his colleagues. “They consider it premature to legislate before having improved the provision of palliative care and, above all, they are afraid of abuse, with semi-eugenic excesses which could end up affecting disabled people, for examplehe observes. I hope they are wrong. Without being sure.”