Religions on the offensive against the law on the end of life

As the parliamentary debate on the end of life reaches a bitter end, with the adoption on Saturday, May 17, of an amendment creating a "right to assisted dying," leaders of the main French faiths are on the offensive. In recent days, they have taken a growing number of positions in an increasingly impatient tone.

The main weapon used to make oneself heard: unity. On May 15, the Conference of Religious Leaders in France published an article on "the dangers of an anthropological rupture" – a phrase also used by Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau.

The text is signed by Antony Boussemart, co-president of the Buddhist Union of France, ^Mgr Dimitrios, president of the Assembly of Orthodox Bishops of France, Chems-Eddine Hafiz, rector of the Great Mosque of Paris, Haïm Korsia, chief rabbi of France, Pastor Christian Krieger, president of the Protestant Federation of France, and Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, outgoing president of the Conference of Bishops of France .

These religious representatives denounce an "ethical, social and medical regression" and the inadequacy of the "ethical and procedural guarantees" provided. "The mere existence of such an option can induce toxic guilt in patients, that of being a burden," the religious leaders believe. Among their many grievances, they deplore both a "perversion of medicine" and the "terminology" adopted - assisted dying - which "masks the true nature of the act."

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