On Monday, President Emmanuel Macron said France must enhance palliative care and create a measure on assisted dying by summer.
He said the law would build on the debate of 184 randomly selected French individuals since December. This weekend, 76% of them supported letting people die with help.
Macron did not specify if the law would legalize euthanasia or assisted suicide. Of course, he would keep thinking about it by then, but unanimity was crucial on such a sensitive issue.
L’Ordre des medecins, France’s national medical association, opposes doctor-assisted suicide.
Some European nations allow assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia.
Switzerland legalized assisted suicide in the 1940s.
This year, Italy’s first assisted suicide victim, paralyzed 12 years earlier in a traffic accident, died. Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Spain allow euthanasia.
Portugal and other EU nations are arguing.
Some jurisdictions only allow passive euthanasia, which involves stopping medical care at the patient’s request.
