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Tuesday, September 13, the ethics committee issued an opinion which opens the way to active assistance in dying, provided that it is supervised. For his part, Emmanuel Macron has launched a consultation for a possible law in 2023.
Could assisted suicide happen in France, as in Switzerland or Belgium? The end of life is governed by the Claeys-Leonetti law of 2016. This authorizes deep and continuous sedation until death for a patient suffering from a serious and incurable condition with a short-term vital prognosis. This law excludes assisted suicide. Some patients therefore go abroad, but this has a cost.
For its part, the ethics committee has paved the way for assisted suicide for adults suffering from serious or incurable illness with a medium-term vital prognosis. “In the medium term, that is to say covering a few weeks or a few months. We can cite certain neurological conditions, we can cite certain cancers”, explains Jean-François Delfraissy, president of the National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE). The patient should express his request in a free, informed and repeated way. A citizens’ convention on the end of life will take place from October.