Campaigners have welcomed the news that assisted dying is to be legalised in France, after the country’s Parliament voted in favour of a Bill that will pave the way for caregivers to help patients end their lives under what would still be some of the strictest conditions in Europe.
The first reading of the Bill was passed by a vote of 305 to 199, and members also unanimously backed a less contentious law establishing a right to palliative care in specialist end-of-life institutions, reports The Guardian.
Both votes are the start of a long parliamentary process that will require the Bills to move on to the Senate – the upper house – and then back to the lower house – the National Assembly – for a second reading, meaning they are unlikely to become law before next year.
The government has described the right-to-die law as “an ethical response to the need to support the sick and the suffering”, insisting it was “neither a new right nor a freedom … but a balance between respect and personal autonomy”.
The legislation would allow a medical team to decide if a patient is eligible to “gain access to a lethal substance when they have expressed the wish”. Patients would be able to use it themselves or have it administered by a nurse or doctor “if they are in no condition physically to do so themselves”.
Patients must meet a number of strict conditions: they must be over 18, hold French citizenship or residency and suffer from a “serious and incurable, life-threatening, advanced or terminal illness” that is “irreversible”.
The disease must cause “constant, unbearable physical or psychological suffering” that cannot be addressed by medical treatment, and the patient must be capable of “expressing freely and in an informed manner” their wish to end their life.
The Bill is referred to in France as a law on “end of life” or “aid in dying” rather than “assisted dying” or “euthanasia”.
The country currently allows passive euthanasia – such as withholding artificial life support – and deep sedation before death, but patients seeking active end-of-life options have no choice but to travel elsewhere to where euthanasia is legal.
Right-to-die campaigners have welcomed the law, though describing it as relatively modest in scope. “It’s a foot in the door, which will be important for what comes next,” said Stéphane Gemmani of the ADMD association.
“We’ve been waiting for this for decades. Hopefully France will steadily align itself with other European countries,” Gemmani said. “Forcing people to go to Belgium or Switzerland, pay €10 000 or €15 000 … The current situation is just wrong.”
Opinion polls show most French people are in favour of assisted dying, but France has been slower than many European neighbours to legalise it. Others are actively debating the issue, including the UK, where an assisted dying Bill is before parliament.
Active euthanasia and assisted suicide have been legal in the Netherlands and Belgium since 2002.
Both countries apply roughly similar conditions – a doctor and an independent expert must agree the patient is suffering unbearably and without hope of improvement – and have since extended the right to children under 12.
Luxembourg also decriminalised active euthanasia and assisted dying in 2009, and while active euthanasia is outlawed in Switzerland, assisted dying has been legal since the 1940s, with organisations like Exit and Dignitas helping thousands of Swiss nationals, residents and others to end their lives.
Austria legalised assisted dying in 2022, while Spain adopted a law in 2021 allowing euthanasia and medically assisted dying for people with a serious and incurable illness, providing they are capable and conscious; the request was made in writing; reconfirmed later; and approved by an evaluation committee.
Portugal decriminalised euthanasia in 2023 but the measure has not yet come into force.
In the UK, MPs approved the legalisation of assisted dying in England and Wales for adults with an incurable illness who have a life expectancy of under six months and are able to take the substance that causes their death themselves, in a first vote in November last year.
MPs must now vote on whether the text, amended in May to allow medics to opt out, is sent to the upper chamber for further scrutiny. The Scottish parliament has also passed its first vote on a Bill to legalise assisted dying.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
France plans assisted suicide law change
Are the Dutch euthanasia laws a ‘slippery slope’?
Switzerland gives legal approval to suicide pod