Macron backs ‘assisted dying’ bill, seeks debate in parliament
PARIS: France’s President Emmanuel Macron said a bill on assisted dying would go before parliament in May, speaking in an interview published by French media Sunday.
Only adults with full control of their judgement, suffering an incurable and life-threatening illness in the short- to medium-term and whose pain cannot be relieved will be able to “ask to be helped to die,” Macron told newspapers La Croix and Liberation.
Macron said on Sunday for the first time that he backed new end-of-life legislation that would allow what he called “help to die” and wanted his government to put forward a drat bill to parliament in May.
France’s neighbours Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands have adopted laws that allow medically assisted dying in some cases. But France has resisted that step, in part under pressure from the Catholic Church.
The Claeys-leoneti law on the end of life, adopted in 2016, authorises deep sedation but only for people whose prognosis is threatened in the short-term.
In an interview with Liberation newspaper, Macron said he did not want to call the new legislation euthanasia or assisted suicide, but rather “help to die”.
“It does not, strictly speaking, create a new right nor a freedom, but it traces a path which did not exist until now and which opens the possibility of requesting assistance in dying under certain strict conditions,” he said.
Macron said those conditions would need to be met and a medical team would assess and ensure the criteria for the decision was correct.
“It would concern only adults capable of making the decision and whose life prognosis is threatened in the medium-term such as final-stage cancer,” he said.
Family members would also be able to appeal the decision, Macron said.
The bill builds on the work of a group of 184 randomly appointed French citizens who debated the issue.
They concluded their work last year with 76% of them saying they favoured allowing some form of assistance to die, for those who want it.