Speaking for the first time on the subject of the end of life, the Minister of Health and Prevention, François Braun, salutes the work, ” outstanding “of the citizens’ convention, but also affirms that “the debate on active assistance in dying is still open”. While the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, announced a bill before the end of the summer, the minister also gives guarantees to caregivers, many of whom are worried about a change in the law.
This is the first time that you have spoken about the end of life, when caregivers, or in any case a large fringe of them, have been speaking out for several weeks. Why did you wait?
We had to wait. There was, with the citizens’ convention, a democratic phase in which different opinions were expressed. These citizens have done a remarkable job, calmly. As we have seen, some, including those who had a clear-cut position, changed their minds as the debates progressed. This shows the complexity of the subject. We are entering the next phase. It is now a question of shifting this societal debate back to political time. And move forward.
Advancing on the path of active assistance in dying, you agree with that, then?
This is not a subject of unanimity. The citizens’ convention voted 75% [75,6 %] in favor of active assistance in dying, but 25% against. My role is to take into account these different opinions, in a posture of listening and respecting everyone, without trying to convince some or dissuade others. I will not do political politics on a subject like that.
And then, talking about end of life is reductive. It is, each time, the end of “a” life, and each situation is different. I saw and accompanied, as an emergency doctor, brutal deaths, or not, of elderly people, adults but also of children, infants… I remember each child for whom I stopped resuscitation. It is always a very hard experience. And believe me, it’s never the same story that repeats itself; we are never, as caregivers, confronted with the same questions. The end of a life ultimately remains a very intimate moment, intimate even, between the patient, his family, the doctor. This course until the last moments is, for me, the most important. Accompanying death is not killing.
Hasn’t Emmanuel Macron already arbitrated in favor of a bill on active assistance in dying?
The debate on active assistance in dying is still open. A piece of legislation along these lines would profoundly change our society and our relationship to death. Of course I cannot accept, as Minister of Health, that French people have to go to another country to end their lives. But euthanasia is an extreme solution that I still have to take the time to think about. If society were to move in the direction of active assistance in dying, it could only be in very specific cases which should be rigorously supervised.
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