“This parliamentary discussion comes at the conclusion of a very long work,” says the director of the National Center for Palliative Care

Monday May 27, an important debate on the end of life will take place in the National Assembly. According to polls, a majority of French people are in favor of active assistance in dying. “This parliamentary discussion comes at the conclusion of a very long work which was launched in February 2022 with the Citizens’ Convention. There was an enormous amount of work to arrive at this bill and the ten-year strategy which accompanies it”, explains Giovanna Marsico, director of the National Center for Palliative and End-of-Life Care (CNSPFV), guest of 19/20 info. According to her, the debate will be “perennial”but she doesn’t think he “will differ greatly from the initial proposal”.

An initial text amended by a special commission, moving from the possibility of active assistance in dying for a patient whose vital prognosis is compromised in the short or medium term, to a patient in an advanced or terminal phase. “The short or medium term is a concept used in intensive care situations, in which the prognosis is relatively easy to determine. (…) On progressive pathologies, it is more difficult. The changes desired by the commission were the modification of this temporal notion with a more pathological notion”, she continues.

Another point debated, the patient’s self-administration of the lethal product. “To preserve equal access to all patients, there is the possibility that it is a third party, a healthcare professional or an adult designated by the patient, who administers the product”underlines Giovanna Marsico.