French parliamentary lawmakers have adopted a bill that allows incurable sick patients to take deadly medications as national demands are growing across Europe due to legal order options.
Parliamentary voting is a key step in a long-term issue, but others remain before the bill becomes law.
“I think of all the patients I’ve met over a decade and their loved ones. Many aren’t here anymore. They’ve always told me: keep fighting,” Olivier Farolni, the bill’s general rapporteur, said in applause from fellow lawmakers.
The proposed measures on fatal drug therapy define death if allowed to use under certain conditions so that people can take it themselves. Only those whose physical state does not allow it to do so alone can get help from a doctor or nurse.
The bill, which won 305 votes and 199 votes, will be sent to the Senate for further discussion.
A decisive vote on this measure could take several months to be scheduled in France’s long and complicated process. The legislature has a final say in the Senate.
Activists have criticized the complexity and length of the Congressional process, which states that patients are being punished for end-of-life options.
In parallel, another bill on palliative care was intended to enhance measures to relieve pain and maintain patient dignity.
Strict conditions
To make a profit, the patient must be over the age of 18, a French citizen, or reside in France.
A team of healthcare professionals should ensure that the patient is suffering from a serious and incurable disease “at the altitude or terminal stage.”
Patients with severe psychiatric symptoms and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease are not eligible.
The person will begin requesting a deadly drug and confirm the request after a period of reflection. If approved, the doctor will deliver a prescription for lethal drugs. Lethal drugs can be taken at home, in nursing homes or in medical facilities.
The 2023 report shows that most French citizens have shown growing support over the past 20 years in favor of legalizing end-of-life options and opinion polls.
The first debate in Parliament last year was suddenly interrupted by President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to dissolve the Parliament, causing France to enter a months-long political crisis.
“What a long way, contrary to what the French people believed and what the people thought,” said Jonathan Dennis, president of the Right to Die with Dignity (ADMD).
Discuss first
Earlier this month, Macron proposed that French voters could be asked to approve the measure in a referendum if Parliamentary debate was on track.
Macron called the vote an important step and added social media, saying, “The path of fraternity I had hoped for is gradually beginning to open up, with respect for various sensibilities, doubts and hopes.”
Many French people traveled to neighboring countries where medically assisted suicide or euthanasia was legal.
For medically assisted suicide, patients taking their own free will, or those who have prescribed a deadly drink or drug that their doctor meets certain criteria.
Euthanasia involves a doctor or other healthcare professional who will give patients who meet certain criteria to receive a fatal injection at their own request.
“We cannot accept that French men and women have to go to Switzerland — if they can afford it, or accept that they are secretly accompanying Belgium to help them choose,” Dennis said.
Religious leaders oppose it
But earlier this month, French religious leaders issued a joint statement denounced the bill, warning of the dangers of anthropological rupture.
A conference of French Religious Leaders (CRCF) representing Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist communities said the proposed measures risk putting pressure on elderly people and people with illnesses and disabilities.
Suicide assistance is legal in some states in Switzerland and in the US. Euthanasia is currently legal under certain conditions in the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Portugal, Canada, Australia, Colombia, Belgium and Luxembourg.
In the UK, lawmakers are debating bills that will help terminal adults end lives in England and Wales after giving them their first approval in November.
