In 2024, one of the events that marked French news is the debate on the end of life. A bill was under consideration in the National Assembly in the spring, until the dissolution made the text obsolete. The first part was unanimous: it focused on strengthening palliative care intended to relieve the physical and psychological suffering of patients. The 2nd part, on the other hand, was divisive: it involved authorizing, under specific conditions, assistance in dying; it took the form of assisted suicide, with an exception of euthanasia (for patients unable to administer the lethal substance themselves). A legalization eagerly awaited by some, feared by others.
On May 27, 2024, after a long gestation, the end of life bill arrives in public session at the National Assembly, introduced by Catherine Vautrin then Minister of Health in the Attal government. “ Ladies and Gentlemen, if palliative care is based on an ethic of the vulnerability of the person, assisted dying postulates the will and autonomy of the patient over their vulnerability. », Declared the minister before the National Assembly.
Many are defenders of the legalization of assisted dying. For Jonathan Denis, president of the Association for the Right to Die with Dignity, this bill represented hope. “ In Francetoday, you have hundreds of French people who have to go abroad — to Switzerland if they have the means or to Belgium — to be able to be accompanied as they wish, that is to say, to be accompanied in the context of assistance in dying because they are sick, have unbearable physical or psychological suffering and cannot be supported as they wish in France, explains Jonathan Denis. So, the hope for a new law was immense because we were saying to these French people: “We will accompany you to your country according to the definition of your dignity and as you have chosen.” »
Jonathan Denis’s fight to authorize assisted dying finds its source in his personal story, in 2008. ” I accompanied my dad as part of an illegal clandestine assisted death in France, which was carried out at his request by a doctor because my father had generalized cancer and physical and psychological suffering had become unbearable, he testifies. It was a request expressed by my father. He might have been able to live a few more weeks, maybe a few months, but for him, it was time to say stop. »
To listen in Priority healthDebate on the end of life in France
Make palliative care available throughout the country
The legalization of assisted dying is a source of concern for Dr Ségolène Perruchio, head of the palliative care department at the Rives de Seine hospital center in the Paris region. “ Even if no one will be forced to request assisted suicide or euthanasia, of course, de factoeveryone will be forced to ask themselves the question, she analyzes. Certain people, who are probably among the most vulnerable, the most isolated, those who do not have the means to care for themselves, could suffer a form of pressure from society, unconscious pressure, by finally saying : “C“Is it true, isn’t that the best solution for me?” And that worries us. »
For Dr. Perruchio, the urgency is to make palliative care available everywhere. “ The priority must be to develop palliative care and we will see at that point that there will no longer be many requests to die, says the doctor. I currently have a young woman in the department who told me a month ago “I was in so much pain that I wanted to die”. This lady was given an intrathecal pump with morphine which diffuses directly into the fluid around her spinal cord. And today she tells me : “Now it feels much better.” Everything is not settled. She doesn’t have zero pain, but nevertheless she no longer asks to die. »
The legalization of assisted dying, an eminently sensitive subject, continues to divide. A bill, signed by 225 deputies and resuming the text as it was before the dissolution, has been tabled and could therefore be examined in Parliament.
To listen to in the Debate of the dayEnd of life: should we contrast the duty to care and the right to die?