Emmanuel Macron has instructed the government to look at whether euthanasia or assisted dying should be permitted in France after a citizens’ convention voted in favour.
He said a draft bill would be produced by the end of summer and also promised a “10-year plan” on end-of-life care. “Our system of support for the end of life remains ill-adapted to contemporary requirements,” he said.
The French president was speaking at the Élysée Palace after meeting members of a 184-person convention set up to consider the issue of euthanasia and assisted dying. It voted by a majority of 76% in favour of some form of euthanasia or assisted dying under certain conditions for those who want it.
Macron said he had asked the government to work with parliament to build on the convention’s work. “The convention’s decision carries with it a requirement and an expectation for a French model for the end of life. We will respond to it,” he said.
The president did not elaborate on whether he supported any form of assisted dying or whether it would be included in any draft legislation covering end-of-life care.
The current law in France dates from 2016 and allows medical personnel to place someone close to death and in intolerable pain under permanent sedation, but stops short of authorising them to administer or supply a lethal substance.
Assisted dying, where medical personnel furnish the means for someone to end their life but the patient administers it themselves, or voluntary euthanasia, where a doctor plays an active role in ending someone’s life at their request, are allowed in a number of European countries. Assisted dying has been legal in Switzerland since the 1940s and euthanasia is legal in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Spain. Last year an Italian man, paralysed 12 years earlier in a traffic crash, died in Italy’s first case of assisted dying. Other EU countries, including Portugal, are debating allowing some form of assisted dying.
France’s national council of doctors, l’Ordre des Médecins, is opposed to its members helping people end their lives.
The convention decided assisted dying should be considered only for patients able to express their wish “at any time”, not those such as patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease who may not be able to.
Macron has overseen the setting up of a number of “citizens’ conventions” to debate “questions related to the life of the nation”. However, the government was accused of ignoring the conclusions of the 2020 climate convention.
Macron has said the citizens’ groups should not decide in place of parliament but their conclusions will be “taken into consideration”.
An opinion poll by the Journal du Dimanche found 70% of those asked were in favour of some form of assisted dying.