The day after the submission of their final report, the members of the citizens’ convention on the end of life were received on Monday, April 3, at the Elysée. The Head of State then pleaded, in a speech, for the elaboration of a “French model of the end of life”. He thus said that he would like a bill to be drafted “by the end of summer” on active assistance in dying, but under conditions.
Based on the work of the convention, Mr. Macron listed “irrefutable elements of convergence”as “the importance of taking into account and analyzing discernment” And “the question of the reiteration of the choice”. He also recalled that the members of the convention considered “it is essential that the medical condition of the patients presents the character of incurability, refractory and physical suffering, even the commitment of the vital prognosis”. Finally, “the absence of conclusions on active assistance in dying for minors suggests that this option should not be opened up”he pointed out.
“You rightly insist that active assistance in dying should never [doive] be carried out for a social reason, to respond to isolation, which sometimes can make a patient feel guilty who knows he is condemned to term”added the head of state, who also closed the door to any assistance in dying for minors.
“These few red lines seem to me to usefully frame the hypothesis of a French end-of-life model and constitute our starting point. »
A “ten-year plan” on palliative care
Now entrusts the government, deputies and senators with carrying out “transpartisan” a “work of co-construction, on the basis of this solid reference which is that of the citizens’ convention and in connection with all the stakeholders”.
More concretely, Mr. Macron also announced that he would launch a “ten-year plan for pain management and palliative care”, denounced as insufficient by the convention. The President of the Republic considered that the State had “an obligation of result” to ensure “effective access to end-of-life care”.
“This means tailoring responses to audiences and locations; better integrate, in the hospital, palliative care in the course of care; train professionals; set a threshold of beds identified by territory, and better networking by mobile teams; pursue the development of palliative care at home. »
“An absolute priority”
It was “an absolute priority”, rejoices Claire Fourcade, president of the French Society for support and palliative care. others “stay hungry”like Jean-Luc Romero-Michel, honorary president of the Association for the right to die with dignity. “There are no concrete measures. It’s a blur once again”he regretted.
And, even, the prospect of the bill worries Ludovine de La Rochère, president of the Syndicat de la famille (ex-Manif pour tous): “Suicide is always a tragedy, whatever the modalities, very heavy to bear for families. »
The Head of State had received in the morning the 184 members of the convention, citizens drawn by lot who participated for three months in intense debates on the subject. He paid tribute to them and announced other citizens’ conventions.
In a report validated on Sunday April 2, the end-of-life agreement answered three-quarters yes to aid “active to die”that is to say, assisted suicide or euthanasia, while matching their positions with important restrictions.
Current legislation, set by the Claeys-Leonetti law, which dates from 2016, allows caregivers to irreversibly sedate patients near death, whose suffering is intolerable. However, it does not go so far as to authorize assisted suicide (when the patient administers the lethal product himself) or euthanasia (when a caregiver injects it).
70% of French people in favor of active assistance in dying
The executive, which had been criticized for having largely neglected the conclusions of a previous citizens’ convention, that on the climate, had already warned that it would not resume as such those on the end of life. An advisory body, the National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE), already paved the way in September for an evolution by judging it possible – under many conditions – to legalize this active assistance in dying.
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According to the convention, such an act requires that the patient has previously benefited from in-depth support and that he has been able to express his wishes at any time. If the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide brings agreement between the left and part of the center, it arouses strong reluctance on the right. The bill may also be a source of tension in society, already shaken by the pension crisis.
In a poll published on Sunday by The Sunday newspaper – carried out with a thousand French people –, a majority (70%) say they are in favor of active assistance in dying. Only 36%, however, consider resorting to euthanasia if they were suffering from a painful and incurable disease.
To feed its thinking, France is also looking at the situation in European countries, where legislation authorizes euthanasia or assisted suicide, sometimes both. Belgium is, with the Netherlands, one of the first two European countries to have authorised, twenty years ago, euthanasia. In Spain, a law legalizing assisted death, which came into force in June 2021, allows euthanasia and medically assisted suicide, while in Switzerland there are different forms of assisted death.