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French President Emmanuel Macron’s government will propose a draft law that will create a “right to die” for adults with incurable diseases who meet strict conditions.
Macron has said the proposed reforms, which will be debated in parliament in May, would use the term “aid in dying” rather than more polarising references to euthanasia or assisted suicide, which also have different meanings.
“The new framework proposes a possible path, in a specific situation, with precise criteria, where medical decision-making will also have a role to play,” Macron told Libération and La Croix newspapers.
If finalised, France would become one of a handful of European countries — including Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Belgium — and several US states, where terminally ill people can make the choice to die. According to UK advocacy group Dignity in Dying, some 200mn people worldwide have legal access to some form of assisted dying.
Macron’s decision to move ahead with the proposal comes after months of hesitating on what remains a sensitive issue in France.
A citizen’s convention convened to debate the issue last year revealed wide public support for the creation of a “right to die”, as well as for more access to palliative care, which aims to mitigate suffering for the terminally ill and has long been underinvested in France.
But religious groups and the Catholic Church have mounted a significant lobbying campaign against any framework that allows sick people to choose to die.
The proposed law would only apply to specific cases of adults with incurable conditions and in a sound state of mind, and could also take into account levels of pain both physical and psychological. An eligible person would need a medical diagnosis of a terminal illness, which contrasts with some assisted suicide systems, where the individual has more freedom to decide.
As an example, Macron said that while a terminally ill cancer patient would be able to request the procedure, a person with a neurodegenerative condition such as Alzheimer’s or a psychiatric condition could not because of questions over their ability to give informed consent.
Macron’s decision to move ahead with the “right to die” comes shortly after he backed a push started by women lawmakers that finally enshrined abortion rights into the constitution last week. Opposition politicians accused Macron of seeking refuge on social issues instead of a more ambitious legislative agenda after several bruising parliamentary battles over pensions reform and immigration.
The planned legislation has already sparked some pushback including from palliative care associations and religious representatives.
“We, the Catholic bishops, ask that society help people to live and live until the end, until death comes,” said Bishop Matthieu Rougé. “What helps people die in a humane way is not a lethal injection, but affection, care, and attention.”
Expressing their “worries, anger and sadness”, healthcare workers’ unions questioned proposed safeguards in the system and said the government push masked under-investment in palliative care.
“Removing the sick to remove a problem at a lower cost, that’s what is proposed in this announcement,” 15 different healthcare unions said in a joint statement.
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