The draft “assisted dying” law, announced by French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, is sparking widespread reactions in French circles, among advocates who stress the importance of the legislation in ending the suffering of patients who choose to do so, and those who reject it, seeing it as “legalizing suicide.”
Macron’s presentation of the new project was followed by an announcement from Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, in which he revealed that the legislation that opens the door to “assisted dying” under “strict conditions” must be submitted to the Council of Ministers in April, to be studied in a first reading in May 27 in the National Assembly (Parliament), and the law may be adopted next year, in light of the great opposition it faces.
What is the Assisted Dying Project?
The new draft law includes some elements, including the development of supportive or palliative care, which is defined by the World Health Organization as a way to improve the quality of life of patients and their families in the face of life-threatening diseases, in addition to enhancing the rights of patients and caregivers, according to the website.West France“.
The law stipulates that adult patients, “capable of full and comprehensive discrimination,” who suffer from an incurable and suffering “incurable disease” have the right to “request assistance in dying.”
The new law does not specify a list of diseases included in the possibility of access to assisted dying, but it sets special criteria that determine the cases of resorting to submitting a request, and concerns only adults who are capable of making the decision and whose lives are at risk due to a disease that has no cure.
The French President revealed, in an interview with the newspapers “La Croix” and “Liberation,” that adult patients “who are able to distinguish completely and completely,” and who suffer from “an incurable disease that is incurable in the short or medium term and there is no way to alleviate their pain,” will be able to “ Asking for help to die.
Therefore, minors and people with psychological or neurological disorders that affect the ability to discriminate, such as Alzheimer’s disease, will be excluded. It will be up to the medical team to consider the request within fifteen days.
In the event of a positive collective opinion from a medical team, a lethal substance will be prescribed to the person concerned, who will be able to take it himself or with the help of another person if he is “physically incapacitated.”
The current law, the most recent version of which dates back to 2016, allows “deep and continuous sedation” for patients who have no hope of recovery in the short term and suffer from pain that cannot be alleviated, but it does not allow assisted suicide or “euthanasia.”
However, many cases in which relatives or doctors responded to the patient’s wishes and helped him by applying “euthanasia” led to them being held accountable before the judiciary and many of them went to prison, according to the radio website. Monte Carlo International.
Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands, which neighbors France, have passed laws allowing medical procedures to end the lives of some cases. But France opposes this step for several reasons, including pressure exerted by the Catholic Church, according to Reuters.
In an interview with Liberation newspaper, Macron said that he did not want the new legislation to be called euthanasia or assisted suicide, but rather “assisted dying.”
He added, “It (the legislation) does not create a new right or freedom, but it charts a path that does not exist yet and opens the way for requesting assistance in dying under certain strict circumstances.”
Macron explained that some conditions must be met, provided that a medical team evaluates the case and ensures that the criteria are met.
Religious opposition
The announcement of the new project presented by the French President sparked the anger of religious institutions and movements in France, which condemned the move.
On Monday, the French Church strongly criticized the “assisted dying” bill, which comes after its refusal last week to legalize abortion.
The president of the French bishops’ conference, Eric de Moulin Beaufort, said, “The law opens the door to medically assisted suicide,” according to what was reported by the website “Lobarizian“.
For his part, the imam of the Grand Mosque in Paris, Shams al-Din Hafez, said that he was “extremely concerned,” explaining that “talking about assisted dying is heinous.”
He believed that “there is a lot of ambiguity about medically assisted suicide and euthanasia…”, speaking of pushing patients toward “death.”
Caregiver anger
For its part, many caregiver associations, including the French Association for Support and Palliative Care, expressed their anger at the draft resolution.
15 medical care organizations said in a joint statement, “The draft law is far removed from the needs of patients and the daily reality of caregivers, with serious consequences for the care and medical system.”
Defending “death with dignity”
On the other hand, a group of medical organizations defends the draft law, relying on a report by the National Advisory Committee for Ethics, which indicated that the current draft law does not take into account “some very difficult humanitarian situations.”
This is especially the case for patients with Charcot disease, a group of genetic disorders that cause nerve damage, and in which people die from suffocation after all their limbs are paralyzed.
In this aspect, journalist Charles Petrie, who suffers from Charcot’s disease, said: “This law, a first step, can provide us with freedom and dignity.”
Advocates of the new draft law also point out the severe harm caused by deep and continuous anesthesia until death, which is being implemented and takes several days before the patient dies, unlike the new procedure in which death by lethal injection is immediate.
The “Right to Die with Dignity” association said, “Finally, France is emerging from the hesitation it has witnessed in recent months,” according to the France Bleu website.
The Assembly’s president, Jonathan Dennis, welcomed “the first step forward,” expressing his happiness to see that “the President of the Republic finally presents a draft law and gives a timetable.”
However, he considers that the text, as currently drafted, “does not go far enough” because, according to him, “there are still many things that are inappropriate,” criticizing “the absence of freedom of choice between medically assisted death, that is, when the person concerned requests it himself.” and euthanasia, where a third-party caregiver makes the decision in place of the injured person who is unable to request it.
ظهرت في الأصل على www.alhurra.com