Caregiver associations and the Church of France strongly criticized on Monday the bill on “assisted dying” presented by Emmanuel Macron, with caregivers evoking a project “which goes against the values of care” and Church “a deception”.
“It is with dismay, anger and sadness that the caregivers gathered within the end-of-life collective learned of the interview with the President of the Republic,” reacted in a press release several caregiver associations, including the Society French Support and Palliative Care (SFAP), the French Association for Oncological Supportive Care (AFSOS) or the French National Association of Advanced Practice Nurses (ANFIPA).
“With great violence, the Head of State announces a system far removed from the needs of patients and the daily realities of caregivers, with serious consequences on the care relationship in perspective,” they add. For them, “dying with dignity is a very legitimate request, but it is precisely the mission of palliative care which is notoriously under-resourced” in France.
“Removing the sick to eliminate the problem at a lower cost, that is what this announcement ultimately proposes”, which “goes against the values of care and non-abandonment which are the basis of our French model of support for the end of life”, they estimate.
A deception
For the Church, “calling a ‘fraternity law’ a text which opens up both assisted suicide and euthanasia is a deception. Such a law, whatever we want, will bend our entire health system towards death as solution”, states in The cross Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the Conference of Bishops of France.
“The President of the Republic presents a well-crafted text on what he calls ‘assisted dying’, but, on palliative care, (these are) vague promises with completely approximate figures,” adds he. Asked about the absence of a conscience clause in the text, he judged that it was “characteristic” of the general philosophy and called on parliamentarians “to measure how ambiguous the announced text is”.
“A very bad surprise”, added Mgr Matthieu Rougé, Bishop of Nanterre, on France Inter. “There is something incomprehensible, and the concealment, behind a term of fraternity, of the absence of fraternity”, according to this bishop.
He was also outraged that lethal injection would be “permitted not only at home but also in nursing homes”. “What does that mean? That we are going to massively open up the possibility of lethal actions in nursing homes?” he asked. “What strikes me is that we have the impression that in the start-up nation, non-productive people no longer have the right to participate,” lamented Mgr Rougé.