Who will be able to access “assisted dying” tomorrow? The Head of State assured this, by revealing in the press, on March 10, the outlines of the future bill on the end of life: the “French model” under construction will open up this possibility, but “under certain strict conditions”. “In this, [la future loi] does not, strictly speaking, create either a new right or a freedom, but it traces a path that did not exist until then.defended Emmanuel Macron in the columns of The cross And Release.
The legislative journey is still long: the text must be presented to the Council of Ministers on April 10, before beginning, on May 27, a parliamentary journey lasting several months.
In its initial version, transmitted to the Council of State on March 15, the list of eligibility criteria is already set. As a guarantee of caution, on a highly sensitive subject: the patient must “be at least 18 years old” ; “be of French nationality or reside stably and regularly in France” ; “be able to express one’s will in a free and informed manner” ; “to be suffering from a serious and incurable condition with a life threatening prognosis in the short or medium term” ; Finally, “present refractory or unbearable physical or psychological suffering linked to this condition”.
Without putting an end to the debates between supporters and opponents of this legislative development, which are particularly lively among caregivers, these “boundaries” just outlined give rise to very concrete questions among doctors whose patients suffer from serious and incurable illnesses. Oncologists, neurologists, cardiologists, palliative care doctors, etc.: the professionals we have contacted, beyond their positions of principle, discuss the issues behind each criterion that they will be the first to have to evaluate. Because it’s good ” doctor “ which will ultimately have to define “whether or not the person meets the conditions required to access assisted dying”we can read, at this stage, in the text of the law.
The “medium term”, an impossible vital prognosis?
“A doctor is not a soothsayer” : the warning comes from all medical specialties. If the prognosis of imminent death (“in a few hours or a few days”according to the definition of ” short term “) seems possible, the exercise is more complex when the deadline is further away and it is counted in months.
This delicate question of the “medium term” justified, in September 2022, that the National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE) opened the way to an evolution of the law. These people whose vital prognosis is not compromised in the short term “do not find a solution to their distress within the scope of legislative provisions”underlined the instance at the time, the “deep and continuous sedation until death”introduced by the Clayes-Leonetti law (2016), can only be triggered for the last hours or last days of life.
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