the National Assembly approves the invoice establishing a proper to assisted dying; the textual content transmitted to the Senate | EUROtoday

After greater than per week of debate, the National Assembly accepted at second studying, Wednesday February 25, the 2 proposals on the top of life: one, consensual, on the event of palliative care; the opposite, extra debated, establishing a proper to help in dying. The first was adopted unanimously with 491 votes. While the second was accepted with 299 votes in favor, towards 226.

Most of the group presidents had given their deputies the liberty to vote on these intimate topics. The two texts will now be despatched to the Senate for a second examination. The textual content establishing the appropriate to assisted dying had already been adopted at first studying in May 2025 within the Assembly, by 305 votes to 199, earlier than being rejected en bloc within the Senate, the place the appropriate and the middle have an absolute majority.

Just earlier than the vote within the National Assembly on second studying on Wednesday, the deputies selected a particular level of the textual content which was nonetheless beneath dialogue. They determined to make self-administration of the deadly substance the rule once more, and administration by a caregiver the exception. This should occur if the affected person just isn’t “physically not able to do it”wherein case a health care provider or nurse will handle it.

Five circumstances

On Wednesday, MEPs additionally spoke out once more on the characterization of the ” suffering “ opening the potential of requesting help in dying. The textual content supplied that the affected person should current struggling “physical or psychological”however, on the initiative of the federal government, the deputies rewrote this notion, specifying {that a} “psychological suffering alone cannot under any circumstances enable one to benefit from assistance in dying”.

The Minister of Health, Stéphanie Rist, took the instance of an individual “who is diagnosed with advanced stage cancer with a life-threatening prognosis, without significant physical pain but presenting psychological distress”. A request for help in dying might then “reflect a transient vulnerability rather than a free and enlightened will”. However, with out the clarification adopted on Wednesday, help in dying would have been made attainable in such a case, she argued.

The key article of the textual content units out 5 circumstances for claiming the appropriate to assisted dying: being an grownup; be French or resident in France; be affected by a “serious and incurable condition” Who “life-threatening” in superior or terminal section; be “able to express one’s will in a free and informed manner” ; And “present suffering linked to this condition” being “either refractory to treatment or unbearable depending on the person when they have chosen not to receive or to stop receiving treatment”.

The consensual textual content on the event of palliative care supplies for the creation of “support houses”intermediaries between dwelling and hospital. THE “enforceable right” to have palliative care was nonetheless eliminated, its critics citing the chance of litigation that it will entail.

Lively debates

Just a few hours earlier than the solemn vote, authorities spokesperson Maud Bregeon mentioned, “personally”that the proposed legislation on the top of life which creates a proper to help in dying “goes too far”. “I believe that this text opens a Pandora’s box and does not set sufficient limits to protect society from abuses”declared on Franceinfo M^me Bregeon.

Recalling that the Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, had “given complete freedom of expression” to his ministers on this topic which is an intimate matter, M^me Bregeon deplored that help in dying, as it’s framed within the proposed legislation, “not limited to incurable diseases leading to death in the short term”.

The textual content, which sparked full of life debates inside the Hemicycle, sought to discover a stability between the safety of susceptible individuals and particular person freedom to decide on the top of life. The discussions highlighted the complexity of the topic, between respecting the needs of sufferers and the necessity to strictly regulate practices to keep away from any deviation.

Supporters of the textual content insist on the necessity to assure dignified assist for individuals on the finish of their lives whereas making certain that exterior pressures are sanctioned. Opponents worry a trivialization of the act and a calling into query of the basic rules of society.

When concluding the debates, Tuesday night, the writer of the textual content, Olivier Falorni (Les Démocrates group), learn within the Hemicycle “the most beautiful letter he received as an MP”he declared: a letter from Elisabeth Badinter, saying she regretted that the phrases of her husband, Robert Badinter, the minister who abolished the loss of life penalty in 1981, had been exploited by opponents of the textual content. “My husband has never equated assisted dying with the death penalty. (…) If he had been a parliamentarian, Robert Badinter would have supported this text; to pretend otherwise would be a betrayal of his thoughts and his memory.read Mr. Falorni.

Tight schedule

These adoptions in the Assembly on Wednesday do not mean the end of the legislative journey of the two texts: in the absence of a possible agreement with the Senate, the government will have, if it wishes a definitive adoption, to give the last word to the National Assembly. Which will imply, after the second reading in the Senate, the meeting of a joint joint committee to try to reconcile the points of view then, after a probable failure, a new reading in the National Assembly and the Senate, and finally, the final reading.

Both Mr. Falorni and the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, want the text to be adopted before the summer break. A very tight schedule in the eyes of certain deputies.