French Parliament approves assisted dying bill after yearslong debate

PARIS (CN) — France’s National Assembly approved a controversial bill Wednesday that would loosen restrictions on assisted dying for people living with an incurable illness — under certain conditions.

“This text is solid — it does not pit freedoms against each other, it holds them together,” Camille Galliard-Minier, the Minister of Health, Families, Autonomy and Disabled People, said ahead of the vote on Wednesday. “This new right does not oppose support and palliative care.”

The approval has paved the way for France to join other countries — like the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada and Australia — that have legalized some form of euthanasia.

Under the bill, French adults living with an incurable, life-threatening illness — and experiencing significant physical or psychological pain because of it — could request a doctor to administer a lethal medication. The person must be able to make this request on their own, ruling out the possibility of family members making the request in the event of a coma, for example.

The doctor would have 15 days to consider the request, and ultimately has the power to decide whether or not a patient meets the criteria for euthanasia. This is a major sticking point for critics who argue the individual themself should be able to make the final call.

“To access this end-of-life assistance, the individual must meet a series of particularly restrictive medical criteria — their wishes alone will not suffice,” the group Ultimate Liberty wrote in a statement ahead of the vote. “For Ultimate Liberty, this logic is fundamentally backward. In a democracy, it’s up to the individual, acting freely and with full awareness, to decide if their life has reached its end.”

The group added that a doctor’s role should be to provide information, offer support and ensure the safety of whatever decision an individual makes, rather than authorize it. Ultimate Liberty also criticized how the bill excluded people suffering from conditions like Alzheimer’s or simply old age.

“For all of these individuals, the law’s response remains: ‘You are not sick enough yet,’” the group said.

Philippe Lohéac, the delegate general of the Association for the Right to Die in Dignity — a group that falls somewhere down the middle of the debate — said he hoped the bill would pass. The association was happy that the conditions for accessing euthanasia were strict, but it still advocates for people to have the right to administer the lethal substance themselves.

The association also condemned that people living with cognitive disorders would not be able to access euthanasia.

“Another obstacle to the proper application of the law is that it is not possible to request active assistance in dying through advance directives,” he said. “So this is not satisfactory at all, because we realize that it will cause real problems for anyone with cognitive disorders, either because they have a neurodegenerative disease, or simply because many incurable diseases involve an altered state of consciousness due to the stress associated with this stage of life.”

Palliative care is at the heart of the debate. Critics of the law often argue resources should be funneled into end-of-life care, rather than euthanasia, to avoid putting pressure on elderly people who feel like their illness has become an emotional or financial burden.

“Let us be fully aware that at the very end of life, there is a great risk of being pushed out due to a lack of attention, consideration and support,” Tugdual Derville, a spokesperson for Alliance VITA, said in a statement. “The law under discussion would therefore have a particularly unjust impact: stigmatizing, discriminatory and discouraging. It would designate a category of people whose lives are deemed unworthy of protection.”

The vote came after a yearslong debate and a countless back-and-forth between France’s National Assembly — its lower chamber of Parliament — and the Senate. It has also divided the political spectrum, with right-wing lawmakers tending to oppose the bill against their liberal counterparts in favor.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who is widely seen as center-right, first stated his support for “moving forward” on euthanasia reforms in 2017 when he said bluntly: “I want to choose how I die.”

The nationwide debate on assisted dying has been raging for more than two decades. Vincent Humbert, a firefighter who became quadriplegic, blind and mute after a car accident in 2000, wrote to former President Jacques Chirac expressing the wish to end his life. After his mother and a doctor ultimately carried out his wish, they were charged with “premeditated poisoning” and “administering toxic substances.” A judge ultimately dropped the case.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu was also in favor of the new law, with one caveat — he will be referring the bill to France’s Constitutional Council for final approval.

“Extensive debates took place in the National Assembly on this proposal; however, the debate in the Senate did not allow for a thorough enough examination to produce a bill that meets both the aspirations of its supporters and the concerns of those worried about its implementation," his office said in a statement on Tuesday. “This referral should provide all the necessary clarifications on these issues, so that the application of the law, if it passed, can be carried out in full respect of the principles guaranteed by our Constitution and human dignity in particular.”

Follow @lilyradz