After four months of debate“ the 184 members selected by lot from the Citizens’ Convention on the end of life have published a voluminous report which will be presented this Monday to Emmanuel Macron, point The Parisian. Beyond the desire to open up the possibility of active assistance in dying (euthanasia and assisted suicide, under conditions), citizens advocate massive investments in supporting the sick and palliative care. It remains to be seen whether they will be heard “.
Indeed, wonders Release“ what will happen to the conclusions of this citizens’ convention on the end of life ? Will the executive take them back ? In what form ? Is this type of exercise a marker of a participatory democracy that works ? »
Response from political scientist Loïc Blondiaux : “ If this citizens’ convention results in a form of indifference on the part of parliamentarians and the government, which would delegitimize the experiment that they have nevertheless put in place, I fearhe says, that the frustration generated in public opinion and among the citizens involved is so great that it does not call into question the possible use of this type of approach. Conversely, if parliamentarians engage in deliberation based on this citizen contribution, this could mark the beginning of the experimentation of a new circuit for the construction of the law. But there clearly needs to be a strengthening of the constitutional framework. »
On a wire…
SO, “ the Head of State will have to evolve on a thread, point The Latest News from Alsace, because this question touches, once again, on intimacy, religion, ethics and everyone’s conscience, because it divides, including and perhaps above all within the nursing staff, and also because the executive comes out exhausted from the still ongoing sequence of pension reform. Emmanuel Macron cannot redo the Citizen’s Convention for the Climate that he had similarly convened before scuttling it to only make people disappointed. Nor can he procrastinate, at the risk of losing all political benefit and burying his last illusions as a reformist president. And he can’t push through either, he’s done it too much and this debate demands more than any other dignity and tact, which, in the current context, is a challenge “.
How to put into practice “active assistance in dying”?
In fact, precise The world, “ the biggest pitfall to overcome for Emmanuel Macron is that of putting into practice “active assistance in dying”, expression which covers all the means of accelerating the end of life, wanted by 76% of the participants in the convention. A large part of caregivers is opposed to euthanasia, remember The world. Killing a patient who asks for it is incompatible with their mission, they say, to provide care. During the last presidential campaign, some doctors had informed the candidate Macron that they would be ready to accept the legalization of assisted suicide since in this case the practitioner does not perform the lethal gesture. The same professionals had promoted the “assisted suicide model” launched in Oregon. In this state of the United States, a patient whose prognosis is life-threatening at six months can be prescribed a product to end his life, at his home “.
Same opinion for the National Ethics Advisory Committee which paved the way for the legalization of assisted suicide in an opinion issued last September. The members of the citizens’ convention have similar positions, point to the newspaper. The classification of the nineteen “models of active assistance in dying” that they advocate place in mind the two scenarios which provide access to suicide as a general rule and euthanasia as an exception “.
A new law?
Finally, for Le Figaro, of course, the law will be rewritten. “ Until recently, Emmanuel Macron insisted on the need not to rush. Even the end of the year 2023 initially set was not a deadline for him. However, the legislative machine will now be set in motion, ensures the newspaper, and it is not certain that the desire for political display does not outweigh the concern for balance expressed by the citizens’ convention. Has the climate of protest against the pension reform weighed? If Macron assures that he is not looking for easy societal success to get out of a social quagmire, it is nevertheless tempting for the head of state, point Le Figaro, to satisfy 75% of French people when it displeases 75% also by holding firm on pensions. »