Ihe citizens’ convention on the end of life, organized under the aegis of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, submitted its conclusions to the President of the Republic a few weeks ago: the support framework for people whose days are numbered in our country does not respond to all situations, mainly due to major shortcomings in the therapeutic offer, and especially in palliative care.
At the same time, two thirds of caregivers came together to signify in a long reflection document that causing death could not be considered as care.
The National Assembly has several times been placed at the heart of this vertiginous controversy. It expresses legitimate political, philosophical, spiritual and ethical convictions. We, parliamentarians from different traditions and political groups, wish today to share three convictions which unite us and will guide our reflection.
Before being an ideological question, our relationship to suffering and death is above all determined by our human experiences. Thus, among the supporters of a legalization of a form of euthanasia, there are many who have had to go through the trials of difficult support and have seen a loved one suffer. This word that we must listen to invites us to hear another: among those who are worried about a potential evolution are most of our caregivers. Their gaze is shaped by the experience of caring for the most vulnerable people and by the countless faces of those they accompanied until their last breath, but also by the difficulties of their profession, which are more perceptible every day in our society. These caregivers tell us that the care relationship is a common good for our whole society, they tell us that care must be protected because it is an alliance.
A form of pride
The caregiver who listens to the request for death, which is a cry of suffering, must never have the right to life or death over the person who confides in him. Each must be able to continue to share with the one who treats him his sorrows and his most intimate fears without ever the place where one treats being able to be that where one causes death.
At the heart of this subject, which largely transcends the political field, the second conviction that unites us is a form of pride. Pride to live in a country which has never avoided these difficulties and which has made courageous choices. Our predecessors in Parliament have drawn a common path over the past three decades for our fellow citizens at the end of life. This French way of support was built on a double ambition. That of fraternity, first of all, with the desire to offer everyone a dignified and humane medical environment, capable of relieving suffering and offering everyone a decent end to life.
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