a plan for palliative care while waiting for a law on assisted dying

2023-12-09 08:26:48

This is the societal ambition of his second five-year term. It has also, for several weeks, been a political burden: Emmanuel Macron has on his desk a bill which opens access to “assisted dying” for incurable patients, under strict conditions. The text provides that they will be able to request the right to administer a lethal product prescribed by a doctor or – if they cannot physically carry out the procedure – obtain assistance from a caregiver, or even a loved one.

First announced for December, “the bill on the French end-of-life model will be presented in February”assured, Saturday December 9, in Le Figaro, Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, Minister Delegate responsible for territorial organization and health professions. However, the date of its examination in the National Assembly has not been set.

Some ministers are pleading for a postponement until after the European elections of June 9, 2024, as they fear that the subject, which divides caregivers, will give rise to a fight between the deputies – who are also divided beyond partisan divisions on the subject – and fuels tensions within society, even if the majority of French people are favorable to the principle of openness to active assistance in dying. “On this subject, we have to go there when we are absolutely sure of everything we have written”argued Aurélien Rousseau, the Minister of Health, on November 14, on Sud Radio, suggesting that the text could be modified before and after its passage to the Council of State.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers End of life: Emmanuel Macron delays deciding certain points of the bill

Crossed by personal questions on the question of opening a right to kill, Emmanuel Macron seeks both to clear the political terrain and not incur the reproach of procrastinating. A dual objective which leads him to limit his communication to the other aspect of the end of life question. Saturday, in The FigaroMme Firmin Le Bodo thus specifies that ” the announcement “ of a “new ten-year strategy” for the development of palliative care “will take place in January”.

“Getting out of a health vision »

The government thus displays its desire to keep its promises, on the anniversary of the opening of the citizens’ convention on the end of life desired by the Head of State, meeting from December 2022 to April 2023 at the Economic, Social and Environmental Council ( EESC). The former participants in this convention, now gathered within an association called The 184 – the initial number of conventioneers drawn by lot – are actually starting to get impatient.

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