It was a long-awaited opinion, at a time when Emmanuel Macron is preparing to draw the outlines of a citizens’ convention on the end of life before a possible law. The National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE) considers it possible to authorize “active assistance in dying” strictly framed. “There is a way for an ethical application of active assistance in dying, under certain strict conditions with which it seems unacceptable to compromise”said at a press conference Alain Claeys, one of the rapporteurs of the opinion issued on Tuesday by the institution.
While several countries have modified their legislation over the past ten years and the French Parliament has debated it, the National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE) set up a working group in June 2021 to reflect again end-of-life ethical issues, currently supervised by the Claeys-Leonetti law. Adopted in 2016, after a first version in 2005, it prohibits euthanasia and assisted suicidebut allows a “deep and continuous sedation until death” for terminally ill patients in very great suffering, whose vital prognosis is engaged “short term”.
Citizen’s agreement
“We need to move for more humanity”, had estimated Thursday Emmanuel Macron who does not exclude the organization of a referendum at the end of the citizens’ convention. “The Idea”, he explained, “it is to give ourselves around six months and depending on the answers and feedback (…) before the end of 2023, if necessary, to change the legal framework”.
During an aside with French people during a presidential campaign trip, Emmanuel Macron said to himself “favorable to moving towards the Belgian model” as “personal”. Along with the Netherlands and Spain, Belgium is one of the European countries that allows euthanasia.