Members in the French National Assembly are currently debating a bill on euthanasia. A worrying momentum has been building over the last few days, causing widespread alarm both in public opinion and among the medical profession. One by one, ethical barriers are being removed, making this proposed law one of the most permissive in the world.
The members of parliament are currently meeting in a special committee before the general debate due to take place in the chamber on May 27th. Since work began on examining the law, there has been a dramatic surge of amendments and new provisions aimed at getting rid of all the safeguards initially proposed in the government’s plan to limit recourse to ‘aid in dying.’
In recent months, President Emmanuel Macron had called for “caution,” while health minister Catherine Vautrin wanted to “maintain the balance.” These calls for vigilance may have been insincere, but at least they were said. They were, however, not heeded.
The first significant shift was the introduction of assisted dying into the public health code. This choice, apparently purely formal, is very important. It implies that euthanasia will henceforth be considered as “care.” A few months ago, some left-wing MPs were already using this term to describe abortion.
A second serious shift concerns the eligibility criteria for aid in dying. The initial wording referred to “a short or medium-term life-threatening condition”. Against the government’s advice, the members of the Special Committee voted to replace the wording with the notion of an “advanced or terminal phase” of the illness. Yannick Neuder, a Les Républicains MP and doctor, expressed his alarm at this serious change in terminology on X: “There are hundreds of cases of illnesses that are curable even though they are terminal.” In these cases, patients run the risk of inappropriately being pushed towards aid in dying.
Hellbound and Down 