“Assistance in dying”, but for whom and how? This is the dizzying question that parliamentarians will have to answer during the examination of the bill on support for the sick and the end of life, from Monday May 27, in the National Assembly. This text of twenty-one articles opens up for the first time in France the possibility of access to medically assisted death for incurable patients and aims, at the same time, to improve the provision of palliative care through a “ten-year strategy”.
The government has planned “strict conditions” to the implementation of this “assisted dying”. “Being an adult, French [“ou résider de façon stable et régulière en France”, prévoit le texte]able to express one’s choice with discernment until the last stage, be suffering from a serious and incurable illness with a life-threatening prognosis in the short or medium term and physical or psychological suffering refractory to treatment”recalled the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, in a interview at La Tribune Sunday from May 26.
The Minister of Health, Catherine Vautrin, poses “guarantee of the balance of the text”while nearly 3,300 amendments were tabled, more than half of which come from the Les Républicains (LR) party and the National Rally (RN), which stand against the text.
The “distorted” government text
However, the executive’s desire to preserve the framework of the project drawn up at the start has already been shattered. During its examination by the special committee, the left-wing deputies, with the support of part of the presidential camp, modified some of the five criteria for access to “assisted dying”. Drive to “distort” the spirit of the project, lamented Frédéric Valletoux, Minister for Health, on Saturday.
The government text provided that only patients whose “vital prognosis” is engaged “in the short or medium term” could see their request for “assisted dying” accepted. However, two amendments adopted – one from Renaissance, the other from the Socialist Party – modified the text, which now indicates that people suffering from an incurable illness “in advanced or terminal phase” will be eligible.
This rewriting was voted by the deputy (related MoDem) of Charente-Maritime Olivier Falorni, general rapporteur of the text, and by one of the four co-rapporteurs, Laurence Maillart-Méhaignerie (Renaissance, Ille-et-Vilaine), against the opinion of the president of the special commission, Agnès Firmin Le Bodo (Horizons, Seine-Maritime), ex-minister of Elisabeth Borne and kingpin of the bill. And against the advice of Mme Vautrin.
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