He wants things to change. On Monday April 3, the President of the Republic gave a long-awaited speech following a meeting with the 184 members of the Citizens’ Convention. They came out in favor of a “active assistance in dying” but under conditions. “I have a personal opinion that can evolve, evolves, maybe will evolve”, explained the president about the end of life.
By the end of the summer, Emmanuel Macron wants a bill to put in place a “French model of the end of life”. “I ask the government, in conjunction with parliamentarians […] to carry out a work of co-construction on the basis of this solid reference which is that of the citizens’ convention”, declared the president.
“You rightly insist that active assistance in dying should never [soit] carried out for a social reason, to respond to the isolation which sometimes can make a patient feel guilty who knows he is condemned to term”, detailed the Head of State. Before adding: “These some red lines seem to me to usefully frame the hypothesis of a French end-of-life model and constitute our starting point”.
A “work of co-construction”
Emmanuel Macron announced that it was up to the government, deputies and senators, to carry out in a “transpartisan” way a “work of co-construction, on the basis of this solid reference which is that of the Citizens’ Convention and in connection with all the stakeholders”.
The Head of State recalled the need to “guarantee the expression of free and enlightened will”, to the “reiteration of the choice”, “the incurability of refractory, psychic and physical suffering, even the commitment of the vital prognosis”. He closed the door to any assistance in dying for minors.
Finally, in his speech, the President of the Republic also announced the “necessary investments” to feed a “ten-year plan” on palliative care, deemed insufficient by the Citizens’ Convention.