End of life: examination of texts begins in the Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet calls for debates to remain "as respectful as possible"
As the issue of end of life, which includes the creation of a "right to assisted dying" , returns to the National Assembly on Monday 12 May, many MPs expressed the wish for dignified and calm debates, allowing for a balanced text on a sensitive subject.
At the opening of the debates, the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, promised to ensure that they remain "as respectful as possible." MPs will debate two bills for two weeks, including weekends if necessary, one on palliative care and the other on assisted dying. A formal vote on each bill is scheduled for May 27.
"Yes, there is something even worse than death, when life has become nothing but inexorable agony," declared the rapporteur of the second text, Olivier Falorni (app. MoDem, Charente-Maritime), defending the need for assistance in dying as a "last resort."
Personal experienceSome MPs shared their personal experiences. "Like many of you, I have experienced irreversible degradation in my own family, being kept alive without consent, in pain," Karen Erodi, the "insoumise" MP for Tarn, told the audience.
The first bill, which was fairly consensual, provides for the creation of an "enforceable right" to benefit from palliative care, whereas, according to a report from the Court of Auditors in July 2023, only half of the needs were met. The chamber began examining the first article on Monday evening, which is intended to clarify this notion of palliative care.
Although Prime Minister François Bayrou has chosen to pass two texts (compared to just one in 2024), to give MPs the freedom to vote for one and not the other, the overwhelming majority of interventions on palliative care, particularly on the right and the far right, have made reference in anticipation to "assisted dying" . Like the rejected amendments calling for it to be written in black and white that there can be no "continuum between palliative care and assisted suicide" . MPs in the central bloc and on the left have called, on the contrary, not to "import" the debates on this second text, which are due to open this week or next week, into those on palliative care.
The second bill is indeed more divisive. It was approved in committee by 28 deputies against 15. In the session, all groups are expected to allow their members a free vote. The elected representatives will first have to examine more than 3,000 amendments, many of which come from the Union of the Right for the Republic, Eric Ciotti's group, an ally of the National Rally. While La France Insoumise denounced an attempt at "obstruction" by the far right, Ms. Braun-Pivet disputed the term, judging that the order of magnitude would be the same during the debates in 2024.
“Lines not to be crossed”The examination of a bill on the end of life, the outlines of which had been unveiled in March 2024 by Emmanuel Macron, had been interrupted by the dissolution . On May 5, the head of state reaffirmed his commitment to this societal development, which divides the government, believing that the debate could not "be reduced" to for or against life, but must ask the question of the "lesser evil" .
"Can the State be involved in the death of a third party, including by simply authorising a device? Personally, I don't believe so. The impossibility of giving death is an absolute principle," declared MP Philippe Juvin (Les Républicains, Hauts-de-Seine), a doctor by profession, expressing concern that the text "opens euthanasia to people who potentially have several years to live." "This law will authorise recourse to the right to die without losing this exceptional character and without encouraging it," on the contrary, estimated MP Océane Godard (Socialist Party, Côte-d'Or).
Health Minister Catherine Vautrin called in the Chamber for the definition of "a clear framework with non-negotiable principles and lines that must not be crossed" for assisted dying. "It is the honour of Parliament to take on the most serious, the most upsetting issues and to find the point of balance," she added.
The question of the criteria for access to this new right will be particularly debated, as well as those of the "safeguards" governing the procedure, the collegiality of the authorization decision, or even the priority given or not to self-administration of the lethal substance. Mr. Falorni's text now provides that the patient must be "suffering from a serious and incurable condition, whatever the cause, which is life-threatening, in an advanced or terminal phase."
In an opinion, the High Authority for Health defined the "advanced phase" as "the entry into an irreversible process marked by the worsening of the state of health which affects the quality of life." This is a definition that the government intends to adopt by amendment.
Around a hundred people also gathered in the evening outside the National Assembly, at the call of the Alliance Vita association, against the "right to assisted death" .
The debates will resume late Tuesday afternoon.
The World with AFP
Contribute
Reuse this content
