2024-03-12 09:50:53
Régis Aubry, member of the National Consultative Ethics Committee, in Paris, September 13, 2022. LUC NOBOUT / IP3 PRESS/MAXPPP
The bill which opens a “assisted dying” – presented by the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, Sunday March 10, in the daily newspapers The cross et Release – sparks an outcry among many caregivers. Professor Régis Aubry, member of the National Consultative Ethics Committee, initiator, alongside Professor Franck Chauvin of “the ten-year strategy”, which inspired the chapter of the bill devoted to palliative care, rejects most of their criticisms.
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A collective of around twenty learned societies and healthcare unions criticize Emmanuel Macron for wanting to hide the opening to euthanasia and assisted suicide in the end-of-life bill by using the expression “help to die “. Do you agree with their opinion?
The Head of State affirms in the interview that the term “assisted dying” is “simple and human”. Conversely, I find that the formula is not clear and that it is a euphemism. It would be more explicit to say that the bill authorizes “assisted suicide.” This expression means that the person himself would be authorized – under certain conditions – to administer the lethal product, unless he cannot physically carry out the action. In this case, a third party could assist him in taking the substance.
This external support would avoid a form of injustice between patients capable and incapable of killing themselves. Interventions by a third party would, I think, remain exceptional. We observe that they are few in number in countries which have legalized assisted suicide. There are technologies that can prevent this. I will cite the syringe pump process, which can be activated by the simple movement of the sick person’s eyelids.
Do you approve of the President of the Republic’s choice not to consider the intervention of a third party if the patient who wishes to die can physically perform the lethal gesture?
The decriminalization of assisted suicide is the modality that was considered the most ethical by the National Consultative Ethics Committee in its opinion 139 issued on the end of life in September 2022. Unlike euthanasia, which assumes that the lethal act is carried out by a caregiver, assisted suicide respects the autonomy of the person. Letting the patient himself make the gesture ensures that he really has the desire to die and removes any doubt about his ultimate ambivalence.
Read also: End of life: words to better understand the debate
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The same group of caregivers criticizes Emmanuel Macron for “derisory announcements” in favor of the development of palliative care. Do you share their disappointment?
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