\n<\/p>\n
Legislation granting incurably ill adults the right to assisted dying has been formally adopted in France after the text was approved by the country\u2019s highest constitutional authority and published in the official journal.<\/p>\n
The law, known as a law on \u201cend of life\u201d or \u201caid in dying\u201d rather than \u201cassisted dying\u201d or \u201ceuthanasia\u201d, means France joins the small group of countries including the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada to have legalised the practice.<\/p>\n
Published on Wednesday after years of debate, it establishes a right to assisted dying for patients of legal age who are French nationals or long-term residents and suffering from conditions that are assessed as incurable and are causing unbearable pain.<\/p>\n
A doctor must verify the patient\u2019s eligibility before a panel assesses whether the criteria have been met. Once approval has been granted, patients must wait at least two days before the procedure can take place and confirm their decision on the day.<\/p>\n
The patient may withdraw consent at any time and must administer the lethal substance themselves unless they are physically unable to do so, in which case a healthcare worker can help.<\/p>\n
Until now France has allowed passive euthanasia \u2013 such as withholding artificial life support \u2013 and deep sedation before death, but people seeking active end-of-life options have been forced to travel to other countries where assisted dying is legal.<\/p>\n
Emmanuel Macron, who promised a right-to-die law in his 2022 re-election campaign, welcomed the news, which he said \u201cconcludes an exemplary democratic debate\u201d, while the text\u2019s author, a centrist MP, called it \u201ca major step forward\u201d.<\/p>\n
Macron\u2019s office added that the law provided \u201can essential guarantee for our fellow citizens\u201d and could now be implemented \u201cin the certainty that it rests on fully established democratic, ethical and constitutional foundations\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, the J\u00e9r\u00f4me Lejeune Foundation, which provides lifetime care to people with genetic intellectual disabilities such as Down\u2019s syndrome, expressed \u201coutrage\u201d and other campaigners said the law posed \u201can <\/em>absolute danger to the most vulnerable\u201d.<\/p>\n All parliamentarians were given a free vote to express their personal convictions during the debate. Euthanasia is a controversial subject in France, which has a longstanding Catholic tradition, while the bill was also opposed by some health workers.<\/p>\n The publication in the official journal follows several legal challenges, with critics arguing that the minimum two-day reflection period was too short and that entire healthcare institutions should be able to refuse on grounds of conscience.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotionFree newsletter | Every day<\/p>\n Sign up to Headlines Europe<\/span><\/p>\n A digest of the morning’s main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n France\u2019s constitutional council upheld the law in its entirety last Friday but ruled that certain provisions needed clarification, including the \u201cconscience clause\u201d, which will allow healthcare professionals to refuse to take part in the procedure.<\/p>\n The council refused to strike down any part of the law, but ruled that doctors must take into account patients\u2019 legal guardians when assessing requests, and that pharmacists as well as doctors and nurses could exercise the \u201cconscience clause\u201d.<\/p>\n That clause must also apply to private, typically faith-based healthcare facilities where assisted dying is \u201cmanifestly contrary\u201d to their mission, it said, providing they were not the only establishments able to meet \u201clocal needs\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Legislation granting incurably ill adults the right to assisted dying has been formally adopted in France after the text was approved by the country\u2019s highest constitutional authority and published in the official journal. The law, known as a law on \u201cend of life\u201d or \u201caid in dying\u201d rather than \u201cassisted dying\u201d or \u201ceuthanasia\u201d, means France<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[1122,10122,8267,141,1023,2918,3824,175],"class_list":{"0":"post-51851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-aid","9":"tag-approval","10":"tag-constitutional","11":"tag-dying","12":"tag-effect","13":"tag-france","14":"tag-frances","15":"tag-law"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}