This is the start of a long legislative process. The “bill relating to the support of the sick and the end of life”, which establishes “assisted dying” under conditions for patients suffering from a “serious and incurable condition”, was sent to the Council of ‘State. According to our colleagues from Agence France Presse (AFP), who were able to consult it, the text recommends five conditions to be met simultaneously to “access assisted dying”.
The bill, the outlines of which Emmanuel Macron revealed a week ago, must be presented to the Council of Ministers in April before arriving in plenary session at the National Assembly on May 27 for a first reading. “With this text, we are looking death in the face,” the president said during an interview with Release And The cross. After months of reflection and several postponements, the Head of State had thus presented a “French model”, refusing to inscribe in stone the law the words “euthanasia” or “assisted suicide”, which can be divisive, even if this “assisted dying” can be similar in certain aspects.
Be 18 years old and of French nationality
According to the wording chosen by the executive, “assisted dying consists of the administration of a lethal substance, carried out by the person themselves or, when the person is not physically able to do so. , by a doctor, a nurse or a volunteer designated by them.
According to the bill submitted to the Council of State, to qualify for this assistance in dying, a person must “be at least 18 years old”; “be of French nationality or reside stably and regularly in France”; “to be able to express one’s will in a free and informed manner”; “to be suffering from a serious and incurable condition with a short or medium-term vital prognosis”; finally “present refractory or unbearable physical or psychological suffering linked to this condition”.
Recourse to administrative justice only for patients
According to the bill, it is the patient who requests assistance in dying from a doctor, who decides alone after consulting other caregivers, within fifteen days. In the event of refusal, only the patient can file an appeal, “before administrative justice”. If, on the contrary, assistance in dying is authorized, the doctor prescribes a “lethal substance” to the person, who will be “accompanied” until the end by a caregiver, even if they administer the product alone.
In addition, the text also contains a part aimed at “strengthening supportive care and the rights of patients”. This new concept of “supportive care” must replace “palliative care” in the law, with an expanded definition. This will involve “comprehensive care for the sick person to preserve their quality of life and well-being and through support for those around them”.
Support homes
The text also lays the legal foundations for creating “support homes”, one of the priorities of the ten-year plan to strengthen palliative care that the executive must unveil by the end of March. This strategy must also increase the means for this supportive care, which will reach 2.6 billion euros annually in ten years compared to 1.6 billion currently, strengthen pediatric palliative care, and set up an ad hoc unit in the 21 departments which do not yet have one.
Representatives of the main religions, notably the Catholic religion, as well as some caregivers expressed their disagreements with the presidential choices. Public opinion seems to be favorable to it. According to an IFOP-Fiducial survey for Sud Radio carried out after Emmanuel Macron’s arbitrations, these are approved by 82% of those questioned.
Support is majority regardless of the political side of those surveyed. “We must respect everyone’s freedom of conscience,” argued Monday on LCI the Minister for Relations with Parliament, Marie Lebec. “There are questions today, questions about the right balances,” she said, while reservations are emerging, including among certain Macronists. The Minister of Health and Solidarity, Catherine Vautrin, who will defend the text on behalf of the government, will be before the deputies of the presidential party, Renaissance, on Tuesday to answer their questions.