2024-03-18 21:25:53
The government has sent its draft law on the end of life to the Council of State, which will open “the possibility of requesting assistance in dying under certain strict conditions”. This text, of which Agence France-Presse obtained a copy on Monday March 18, details the five conditions to be met simultaneously for “access to assisted dying”.
A person must “be at least 18 years old” ; “be of French nationality or reside stably and regularly in France” ; “be able to express one’s will in a free and informed manner” ; “to be suffering from a serious and incurable condition with a life-threatening condition in the short or medium term” ; Finally, “present refractory or unbearable physical or psychological suffering linked to this condition”.
According to the text, “assisted dying consists of the administration of a lethal substance, carried out by the person themselves or, when the person is not physically able to do so, by a doctor, a nurse or a voluntary person that it designates”.
The bill, the outlines of which Emmanuel Macron had revealed a week ago, must now be presented to the Council of Ministers in April, before being the subject of a parliamentary examination which will begin on May 27 in the hemicycle of the National Assembly, planned to last several months. The deputies are preparing to set up, a priori on April 10, a special commission to examine this very sensitive issue.
A “French model”
Read the decryption | Article reserved for our subscribers End of life: Emmanuel Macron endorses the bill on “assisted dying”
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“We must respect everyone’s freedom of conscience”pleaded Monday on LCI the Minister for Relations with Parliament, Marie Lebec. “There are questions today, questions about the right balances”, she said, while reservations are emerging, including among certain Macronists. The Minister of Health and Solidarity, Catherine Vautrin, who will defend the text on behalf of the government, will be before the deputies of the presidential party, Renaissance, on Tuesday to answer their questions.
After months of reflection and several postponements, the Head of State presented in The cross et Release and “French model”refusing to inscribe in the marble of the law the words ” euthanasia “ or “assisted suicide”which can be divisive – even if this “assisted dying” can be related to it in certain aspects.
Read also: End of life: words to better understand the debate
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Representatives of the main religions, notably the Catholic religion, as well as some caregivers expressed their disagreements with the presidential choices. Public opinion seems to be favorable to it. According to an IFOP-Fiducial survey for Sud Radio carried out after Emmanuel Macron’s arbitrations, these are approved by 82% of those questioned. Support is majority regardless of the political side of those surveyed.
According to the text, it is the patient who requests assistance in dying from a doctor, who decides alone after consulting other caregivers, within fifteen days. In the event of refusal, only the patient can file an appeal, “before administrative justice”. If assistance in dying is authorized, the doctor prescribes a “lethal substance” to the person, who will be “accompanied” until the end by a caregiver, even if she administers the product to herself.
Read also | Article reserved for our End of life subscribers: “Hippocrates offered caregivers a humanist path that obliges us”
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The bill also contains another part aimed at “strengthen supportive care and the rights of patients”. This new concept of “supportive care” must replace the ” palliative care “ in the law, with an expanded definition: it will be a “comprehensive care of the sick person to preserve their quality of life and well-being and through support for those around them”.
The text also lays the legal foundations for creating “support houses”, one of the priorities of the ten-year plan to strengthen palliative care that the executive must unveil by the end of March. This strategy must also increase the means for this supportive care, the cost of which will reach 2.6 billion euros annually in ten years compared to 1.6 billion euros currently, strengthen pediatric palliative care, and set up a ad hoc unit in the twenty-one departments which do not yet have one.
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