ΓΑΛΛΙΑ
- 27 Apr 2023
- international
Emmanuel Macron announced that he expects from the French government a bill on the "end of life" (ie euthanasia) in France "by the end of the summer", after receiving the conclusion of the Assembly of Citizens that discussed the issue during the last months.
Its work concluded this weekend and 76% of participants were in favor of "active assisted dying", but with conditions.
Seeking the formation of a "French model of end of life", he entrusted the government and parliament with the task of defining this model by establishing conditions.
The French president did not specify whether he wants France to allow euthanasia or assisted suicide, or whether the bill will include one or both. He stated that consideration of the matter should continue until then and that consensus is very important on such a sensitive issue.
Among them, the need to "guarantee the free and clear expression of desire", "the re-expression of choice", "the incurability of mental or physical pains up to the threat of life".
At the same time, Emmanuel Macron announced investments that will fund a ten-year palliative care program, deemed insufficient by the Assembly.
France's National Council of Doctors (Ordre des medecins) has announced that it is opposed to the involvement of doctors in assisting people to kill themselves.
Assisted suicide, in which medical personnel give someone the means to kill themselves, or voluntary euthanasia, in which a doctor takes an active role in ending a person's life at the person's request, are allowed in many countries in the Europe.
Assisted suicide has been legal in Switzerland since the 1940s.
Euthanasia is legal in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Spain and last year an Italian man, paralyzed for 12 years after a car accident, died in Italy in the first case of assisted suicide.
Intense debates on the subject are taking place in other countries, such as Portugal.
Some other countries do not accept anything but passive euthanasia, at the request of the patient, in which certain types of treatment are stopped causing death.
