They multiply press conferences, columns in newspapers and sometimes defend opposing visions. A few days before the presentation of a draft law on the end of life, caregivers explain their positions.
They do not want the law to establish active assistance in dying, namely assisted suicide or euthanasia. Tuesday evening, September 19, around ten representatives of healthcare organizations organized a press conference to explain their opinion on the subject, while the Ministry of Health must present its bill next week.
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For Évelyne Malaquin-Pavan, president of the National Nursing Council, current tools, palliative care, deep and continuous sedation are sufficient. “Today, we have everything we need in the current law, it is not applied. We have all the elements to be able to effectively respond to our palliative situations of supporting people”she argues.
“We don’t need this new law.”
Évelyne Malaquin-Pavan, president of the National Nursing Councilat franceinfo
The risk of no longer looking for another solution
For Doctor Ségolène Perruchio, vice-president of the French Society for Palliative Care, health professionals must not cause death, regardless of the method used. In particular, she fears that this option will prevent the search for solutions. “The major risk is that when asked by a patient who will tell me ‘doctor, I’ve had enough, I want to die, this has to stop’, instead of asking him ‘why are you telling me that and how can I help you?’, I’ll tell him: ‘Do you meet the criteria of the law? How are we going to organize this? When?’ We will no longer have the space for the why and for the help.”
“To take someone’s life is, for me, a form of abandonment. It does not fall within the scope of care.”
Ségolène Perruchio, vice-president of the French Society for Palliative Careat franceinfo
“It’s ultimately the ultimate treatment”
On the contrary, active assistance in dying is a treatment, believes Doctor François Blot, resuscitator in an anti-cancer center. He recently wrote an article in the newspaper The world with 102 other caregivers. He defends the role of the doctor in the procedure and does not want this mission to be delegated to other people, as is planned in certain countries. He advocates involvement “health professionals, and not just any health professionals, those who have been following the patient for a long time, the treating doctor or the specialist doctor. For him, it must be the doctor who helps his patient. It’s ultimately the ultimate treatment.”
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If there is a new law on the subject, François Blot must provide “let it be them who do it and there should be no handover to community volunteers who come from outside, as is the case in Switzerland.” He also doesn’t want a “prescription for a pill that you would go to the pharmacist to get on your own, like in Oregon (United States)”, he adds.
No doctor will be forced to
One thing that everyone agrees on, including the Ministry of Health: a conscience clause must be introduced. Caregivers who do not wish to support patients in active assistance in dying will not be obliged to do so.