The secular struggles are multiple and affect both the freedom of individuals and the equality of citizens. They are rooted in the ideal of human emancipation, both collective and individual, and are nourished by self-determination. No conscience locked in the throes of determinism, padlocked by a path imposed from childhood or suffocated by community pressures is free and cannot make real choices. In addition to a simple organic separation of Churches and the State, the principle of secularism, qualifying our French republican framework from the first article of our Constitution, is also and above all part of a process prior to the law of 1905. It goes back to the logic of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789.
The long process of secularization of the law which results from it thus acts in France, at least symbolically, like a kind of ratchet effect on new rights modifying certain norms whose only foundation was of religious moral essence. From equal voting rights to the legalization of abortion, from that of divorce to marriage for all, from the freedom of funerals to the patient’s choice to refuse treatment in the most important stages of his private life, a process of secularization took place for the benefit of the choice of the person. The multiplication of freedoms in the personal life of the citizen has continued until today without taking anything away from those who legitimately decide to continue to impose religious rules that are just as personal. These ‘secular breaths’ have no taboos and should benefit the citizen until his last breath. This is how we commit ourselves to the right to die with dignity because it is a secular fight.
Secular fight first, because it is a question of allowing everyone, at the end of life and in great suffering, to make a choice which supposes a free and enlightened conscience. The question only becomes intimate when this choice is possible and it is framed by law. It is therefore first of all a public question before becoming a personal question. Even in death, no conscientious objector, whatever the nature of his refusal, has the legitimacy to subject all consciences to a dogma that he would judge to be true, non-derogable and inviolable. If the secular Republic must ensure freedom of conscience for everyone, it must ensure this freedom of human conscience without paternalism.
No belief has the legitimacy to hinder the recognition of a new individual freedom
Secular fight then, because the visions of death in our society, if they are the result of a very complex history, as universal as singular, owe a lot to the representations that the cults have made of it. For months now, various religious leaders have been making their voices heard on this subject. That they express the position of their Church in our pluralist democracy is their most legitimate right, but that they take advantage of their beliefs to try to prevent this debate, to prohibit the exchange with blows of anathemas and threatening our institutions in the name of their faith is unacceptable. The only red line of the legislator on the matter is fixed by our block of constitutionality, only lock which makes it possible to say that the will of the representatives of the people could have crossed an impassable line. No belief here has the legitimacy to hinder the recognition of a new individual freedom.
Secular combat finally, because it will respect the conscience of each one, patient as doctor. Like the fight for abortion, such a practice cannot be imposed on anyone. Neither to the carer who benefits from a conscience clause, even less to the individual himself who can only make such a choice according to his will. The double face of dignity is thus preserved by such an advance. The subjective dignity which allows the individual to fix what is worthy for himself according to his conscience; the objective dignity which will establish the criteria for access to this right and which will reserve its enjoyment to people at the end of life.
Signatories of this text, the diversity that we represent in the field of the purely secular question will not fail to be underlined. However, in these controversies between different sensitivities who claim this republican principle, for a moment, it seems decisive to us to unite for a fight that we consider eminently humanist, secular and just: the right to die in the dignity.
*The main signatories:
Pierre Juston (PhD student in public law, initiator of this call, and Administrator of the ADMD)
Gilbert Abergel (President of the Republic Secularism Committee)
Charles Arambourou (Retired Financial Magistrate, UFAL)
Elisabeth Badinter (Philosopher)
Tristane Banon (Essayist)
Daniel Bénichou (President of the Association Le Chevalier de la Barre)
Marine Brenier (Former LR MP)
Marika Bret (Essayist and ex-HR of Charlie-Hebdo)
Gérald Bronner (Professor of Sociology)
Martine Cerf (General Secretary of EGALE)
Charles Conte (Secularism Project Manager for the Education League)
Jean-François Chanet (Historian and V.-P. secularism of the education league)
Jacqueline Costa-Lascoux (Sociologist)
Bernard Dekoker-Suarez (Grand Master of the Universal Mixed Grand Lodge)
Gérard Delfau (Honorary Senator and Director of the Débats Laïques collection)
Jonathan Denis (President of the ADMD)
Louise El Yafi (Lawyer and essayist)
Raphaël Enthoven (Philosopher and columnist)
Caroline Fourest (Essayist and editorial writer)
Philippe Foussier (Vice-President of Lay Unit)
Christian Gaudray (President of UFAL)
Jean Glavany (Former Minister)
Patrick Kessel (Journalist and essayist)
Eddy Khaldi (DDEN President)
Rachel Khan (Essayist)
Catherine Kintzler (Philosopher)
Guy Konopnicki (Journalist)
Laurent Kupferman (Essayist)
Françoise Laborde (Journalist)
Françoise Laborde (Former Senator and President of EGALE)
Marie-Pierre de La Gontrie (Socialist Senator)
Martine Lombard (Emeritus Professor of Public Law)
Catherine Liautey (Grand Mistress of the Women’s Grand Lodge of France)
Isabella of Mecquenem (Philosopher)
Michel Miaille (Emeritus Professor at the Faculty of Law of Montpellier)
Patrick Pelloux (Emergency physician, writer)
Henri Peña-Ruiz (Philosopher)
Damien Pernet (General Secretary of UFAL)
Almond Pichegru (Grand Master of Human Rights)
Nicolas Pomies (UFAL National Office)
Iannis Roder (History teacher and essayist)
Jean-Luc Romero-Michel (Honorary President of the ADMD)
Jean-Pierre Sakoun (President of Lay Unit)
Jean-Marc Schiappa (Historian and President of IRELP)
Ari Sebag (General Secretary of LICRA)
Georges Sérignac (Grand Master of the Grand Orient of France)
Remy-Charles Sirvent (General Secretary of CNAL)
Françoise Sturbaut (President of the Education League)
Laurence Taillade (Essayist and editorial writer)
Jean-Louis Touraine (Professor of medicine and honorary deputy)
Virginie Tournay (Researcher)
Christiane Vienne (Grand Master of the Mixed Grand Lodge of France)