France's National Assembly on Wednesday adopted a bill that will create a legal right to assisted dying for adults with incurable illnesses, capping years of intense ethical and political debate.
France's lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill allowing adults with incurable illnesses to receive lethal medication, the culmination of years of debate over end-of-life care.
The National Assembly approved the measure in a 291-241 vote after backing it in three previous readings, completing parliament’s work on the legislation announced by French President Emmanuel Macron more than three years ago.
The legislation will, under strict conditions, allow a person to request to be given a lethal substance. The substance could be self-administered or, if the person is physically unable to do so, administered by a doctor or nurse.
But the adoption does not mark the end of its legislative and judicial path, with French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu asking France's Constitutional Council, the highest constitutional authority, to examine the legislation after it is passed.
Read moreFrance's assisted dying bill: What's in it?
The path to the final vote was "a marathon with hurdles", the bill's author Olivier Falorni, a former lawmaker-turned-mayor, told AFP.
The law passed the National Assembly in a vote last year, but was rejected by the Senate upper chamber, with the government permitting the lower house to have the final say without the Senate's assent, as allowed by the constitution.
Lecornu's office said that the Constitutional Council had been called in after the lack of debate in the right-wing dominated Senate meant the text fell short of a draft "meeting both the aspirations of its proponents and the concerns of those worried about its implementation".
The Council, whose rulings are binding, can in extreme cases declare an entire piece of legislation invalid or can express reservations about certain sections.
Right-wing heavyweights from the traditional right Les Républicains party (LR) that dominates the Senate, such as Senate speaker Gerard Larcher and former interior minister Bruno Retailleau, have staunchly opposed the legislation.
'Balanced' or 'very dangerous'?
The law would establish a right to assisted dying subject to conditions. Reserved for adults, it would be accessible to patients suffering from an incurable condition.
They must be capable of expressing themselves in a "free and informed" manner and be suffering from physical pain.
This pain must either be unresponsive to treatment or, in the patient's view, unbearable, where they have chosen not to receive or to stop receiving treatment.
A physician will be responsible for verifying the patient's eligibility, before a panel assesses the criteria. Ultimately, the doctor makes the decision alone, and the patient may withdraw consent at any time.
The patient will administer a lethal substance themselves, with exceptions for those who are physically unable to be helped by a health worker.
Rapidly aging population
According to various estimates, assisted dying is available to some 300 million people worldwide, with euthanasia legal under certain conditions in some countries and assisted suicide allowed in others and in several US states.
France has an increasingly aging population, with growing numbers of patients who require care for chronic illnesses. The traditionally Catholic country has grappled with legal, medical, moral and religious questions about end-of-life options, including existing legislation that allows doctors to keep terminally ill patients sedated before death but stops short of allowing assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Many French people have traveled to neighbouring countries where medically assisted suicide or euthanasia are legal. Medically assisted suicide generally involves a patient voluntarily taking lethal medication prescribed by a doctor. Euthanasia involves a doctor or other health care professional administering a lethal injection at the patient’s request.
End-of-life options are also being debated in the United Kingdom. A bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales will formally return to Parliament on September 11, five months after it ran out of time in parliament’s last session.
French President Emmanuel Macron had promised an assisted dying law when he was re-elected for a second term in 2022, in a change seen as one of the most important social reforms since France allowed same-sex marriage in 2012.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
