France’s lower house of parliament adopts final text of landmark right-to-die law
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. French President Emmanuel Macron, who promised such a law during his re-election campaign, hailed lawmakers’ “respectful debate” on the issue following the vote.
Assisted dying bill ‘almost anathema to France’s right wing’
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 euthanasia or medically assisted suicide are legal, such as Switzerland. Euthanasia allows a doctor or other healthcare professional to administer a lethal injection at the patient’s request. Medically assisted suicide generally involves a patient voluntarily taking lethal medication prescribed by a doctor.
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.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
