France Once Again Rejects Bill to Legalize Assisted Suicide

The French Senate on Tuesday rejected a bill to legalize assisted suicide for the second time, voting down Article 2 of the legislation — which established a right to the procedure — by 151 votes to 118.

The upper chamber overwhelmingly approved a separate measure to improve access to palliative care, passing it 325-18 without amendment.

The bill, which has twice passed the more left-leaning National Assembly, would allow adults with an incurable or terminal illness to request lethal medication they could self-administer or have a medical professional administer if they are unable. However, as experience has shown when other nations or states legalize assisted suicide, these qualification requirements are soon watered down or eliminated.

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It requires five conditions: legal adulthood, free and informed consent, an incurable illness with a life-threatening prognosis, suffering resistant to treatment, and stable residence in France to prevent “death tourism.” Doctors could refuse on grounds of conscience but would have to refer patients elsewhere.

However, practice in places like Canada and Switzerland show that the option to die quickly becomes a duty to die as legitimate medical care is rationed in favor of euthanasia.

The Senate’s action marks the second time it has blocked the legislation.

In January, senators rejected a core article defining eligibility for “medical aid in dying.”

Bruno Retailleau, leader of the Republicans party in the Senate, argued that such a profound change should not be imposed without broad agreement.

“Such a serious anthropological question” should be decided by the French people, Retailleau said. “Such a fundamental text must benefit from a minimum of consensus.”

He warned that the bill could lead vulnerable people to view themselves as burdens.

“If tomorrow the text were voted on…on the threshold of death, everyone will have to ask themselves if they are not a dead weight, if they are not a burden for society or for their loved ones,” Retailleau said.

Catholic leaders strongly opposed the measure, urging greater investment in palliative care instead.

Bishop Marc Aillet of Bayonne warned that the bill represented an “anthropological rupture.”

“The final adoption of this bill could only encourage the poorest or most vulnerable patients who lack access to palliative care, or so-called ‘eligible’ individuals who fear being a burden on their families, the medical community, or the social security budget, to resort to assisted suicide or euthanasia,” Aillet said.

He noted that proper palliative care often eliminates requests for death.

“Almost all patients tempted to request assisted suicide or euthanasia abandon the idea once they are cared for in a palliative care unit capable of supporting and relieving their suffering, but in France, palliative care is still so inadequate, despite several laws adopted almost unanimously, that nearly half of our fellow citizens still cannot benefit from it,” Aillet said.

In a January statement, France’s bishops declared that “palliative care is the only truly effective response to the difficult situations of the end of life” and added: “We do not care for life by giving death.”

The government, which supports the bill, hopes to secure final passage before the summer recess in mid-July. It can bypass the Senate by giving the final say to the National Assembly, where the measure has stronger backing. Opponents, including Retailleau, are pushing for a national referendum on the issue.