Le bill “on the French end-of-life model”, which must be presented in February, is on the table of the President of the Republic. The executive is faced with the need to respond to blind spots and questions currently unresolved by current legislation, and to mark the five-year term with a strong societal act without worrying caregivers – not so much in terms of the electorate. potential as well as endangering a health system on the verge of collapse.
The challenge, for the executive and the legislator, is to avoid a poorly cut score, a half-measure which would leave everyone with a taste of unfinished business and lead to over years of successive revisions, in fact fueling the “fear of deviations”. But has the watchword become to go “as far and as slowly as possible”? Announced by the government in December 2023, the “ten-year strategy for palliative care, pain management, end-of-life support”, a gleaming but above-ground and disembodied ten-year plan, is already worrying for the rest of the text .
As a citizen, at the same time caregiver, patient and helper, I would like to identify some moral and political imperatives for a law of progress and courage, with the challenge of leaving no one behind, no patient without a response to their request no supportive support, no caregiver in fear of an ethical and deontological setback. Ten prescriptions will make it possible to meet this challenge.
A global law
A global text on the end of life cannot separate palliative care and medical assistance in dying into two texts. If the latter is legalized, it cannot be isolated, in a separate text, from the general question of the end of life of which it will constitute one of the aspects.
A fair law
The end of life will not leave anyone behind and will propose terms and criteria that do not exclude any situation. These will therefore take into account the cases of people who cannot access assisted suicide, for physical or psychological reasons, opening up to an exceptional possibility of euthanasia.
A solidarity law
The demand for solidarity will not leave anyone alone in the face of agony and death, in particular without healthcare support adapted to the request and needs of the person, therefore including in the event of a request for medically assisted death. The prospect of a discharge on association volunteers or, worse, of a simple prescription without the presence of a caregiver afterwards would be an admission of abandonment.
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