They had never spoken all together at the same time on the issue. Fearful of showing too rigid a front on a divisive social issue. On Tuesday, January 23, however, the leaders of the main religions in France met to speak together and at the same time on the end of life.
It was in the board room of Paris-Cité University, decorated with paintings and tapestries praising care and health, that they spoke again about the book in which they all participated to provide food for thought on end of life. Released shortly after the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023, Religions and end of life (Fayard, 2023), a work coordinated by Laetitia Atlani-Duault, brings together the points of view of the main representatives of religions in France on the subject. But the outbreak of war in the Middle East completely overshadowed it. This start of the year was therefore a perfect opportunity to make oneself heard by talking about the work again.
On Tuesday, several people expressed their reluctance, if not their frank opposition, to a bill facilitating active assistance in dying. “We are very cautious about the need for a law. The Claeys-Leonetti law responded to many needs, the challenge is to make it live more”affirmed Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, archbishop of Reims and president of the conference of bishops of France.
For his part, Chief Rabbi Haïm Korsia has also made no secret of his frank opposition to a new text going further than the already existing legislation. “The main principle is to first treat, to care… It would be tragic to say that we are entering a world where killing becomes care. We are going to break with a system which says that we cannot cause death. » For him, this last point even represents a “anthropological rupture” because now, “we can say: “we can kill””.
Develop palliative care
A clear opposition also shared by Chems-Eddine Hafiz, the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, who emphasized the suffering of people at the end of their lives, convinced of being, according to him, a burden for others and for the society. “Today we must strengthen this human warmth that hospitals lack. I proposed that the presence of chaplains be stronger and that contact with the family be simpler so that the person decides in conscience”, he explained. A few minutes before, he had also been the only one to support his demonstration with a religious argument: “God gives life and decides when he takes it back. »
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