French president Emmanuel Macron has decided that his administration should implement an ‘End of Life Model” and has tasked the government with drafting a new law within months.
Critics say the move is a dangerous first step towards legalizing euthanasia in the country.
According to Reuters: President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday France must improve the availability of palliative care and there would be a draft bill by the end of the summer on whether some form of assisted dying should be allowed.
BYPASS THE CENSORS
Sign up to get unfiltered news delivered straight to your inbox.
You can unsubscribe any time. By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use
He said the bill would build on the work of a group of 184 randomly appointed French citizens who have debated the issue since December. They concluded their work this weekend with 76% of them saying they favored allowing some form of assistance to die, for those who want it.
Macron did not say whether he wanted euthanasia or assisted suicide to be allowed in France or if the bill would include either or both. He said thinking on the matter would continue by then but consensus was important on such a sensitive matter.
France 24 reports: Macron said caveats to any legalisation should include the need to “guarantee the expression of the enlightened and free will” of a patient, and the incurable nature of their mental or physical suffering.
Until now French patients in pain wishing to end their lives have had to travel abroad, including to neighbouring Belgium.
So far in France, a 2005 law has legalised passive euthanasia, such as withholding artificial life support, as a “right to die”.
A 2016 law allows doctors to couple this with “deep and continuous sedation” for terminally ill patients in pain.
But active euthanasia, whereby doctors administer lethal doses of drugs to patients suffering from an incurable condition, is illegal.
Assisted suicide — whereby patients can receive help to voluntarily take their own life — is also banned.
