End of life: MPs adopt in committee a text creating “assisted dying”

On Friday, May 2, MPs adopted in committee a bill creating a "right to assisted dying" , subject to strict conditions.

Olivier Falorni's (MoDem group) bill was adopted by 28 deputies against 15, with one abstention. Supported by the majority of representatives of the left and Macronist groups, and bitterly opposed by those of the RN and LR, it would allow patients suffering from a "serious and incurable condition" that is "life-threatening, in an advanced or terminal phase" and who can no longer bear their suffering, to receive or administer a lethal substance.

The Social Affairs Committee had already unanimously approved a bill on palliative care, defended by Annie Vidal (Renaissance), before the parliamentary recess.

The two texts come from the bill "relating to support for the sick and the end of life" brought forward in spring 2024 by the Minister of Health Catherine Vautrin , and which could not be completed due to the dissolution.

Debates in the Chamber on the two texts will begin on May 12 for two weeks, with a joint general discussion and two formal votes scheduled for May 29.

Throughout the committee debates, Olivier Falorni and his co-rapporteurs, including three opposition MPs, were keen to maintain the "balance" of the proposed text. Ultimately, only 68 of the more than 1,000 amendments under discussion were adopted.

Thus, the key article of the text defining the eligibility criteria for assisted dying has barely been amended.

These five cumulative criteria are: being at least 18 years old; French or residing in France; suffering from a “serious and incurable condition, whatever the cause, which is life-threatening, in an advanced or terminal phase” ; the latter causing “physical or psychological suffering” which is unbearable or resistant to treatment; being able to express one’s wishes freely and in an informed manner.

In its initial version, the bill provided that the vital prognosis would be engaged "in the short or medium term" - the difficulty being to know what this notion of "medium term" covers.

The deputies also decided to give patients the free choice between self-administration of the lethal product and administration by a carer who volunteers to do so, whereas the initial text stipulated that the latter would only be possible when the patient "is not physically able to do so" . This development was contested in particular by Horizons MP and former Health Minister Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo.