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French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday outlined plans for a bill to allow certain patients to receive medical assistance in dying, under a restrictive legal framework.
In an interview with Libération and Catholic daily La Croix, Macron said that the bill would not legalize euthanasia, which he defined as “ending someone’s life, with or without their consent,” or assisted suicide.
The new legislation won’t create a universal right to require assistance in dying for anyone, he said, but rather “choose the path of least resistance when death has already arrived.”
When prescribed, the lethal injection will be self-administered except for cases where the patient is unable to do so.
The procedure will only be made available to patients above the age of 18, afflicted with an incurable disease and who are set to pass away in the short-medium term. Those suffering from judgement-altering conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease will not be allowed to receive a lethal injection, and the procedure will only be made available when there exist no alternative solutions to ease the patient’s suffering.
The bill — which Macron promised during his 2022 presidential campaign and had been in the works for more than a year — will be examined by the National Assembly in May, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Macron’s announcement comes just a few months ahead of the European election in France, for which polling currently shows the president’s party Renaissance trailing the far-right National Rally.
“This is a matter on which public opinion is already sold, so it makes sense for us to do this before the election” a spokesperson for Renaissance, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, told POLITICO.
