France legalises assisted dying
The law takes effect after presidential signature and a Constitutional Council ruling; eligibility is limited to adults with serious, incurable conditions.
France has officially legalized assisted dying after a multi-year public debate, after President Emmanuel Macron signed the law and it was published in the Official Journal.
The Constitutional Council approved the bill last Friday under the condition that it be applied only to patients with serious illnesses; the council, led by Richard Ferrand, concluded that no provision of the law is incompatible with the Constitution. President Macron hailed the decision, saying it "completes a model democratic process."
What the new right allows
The law creates a right for eligible patients to self-administer a lethal substance in the presence of a health professional. Medical staff will be permitted to administer the substance only if the patient is physically unable to do so themselves.
To qualify, a person must be an adult, a French citizen or a long-term resident of France, and suffer from a "serious and incurable" condition that is in a terminal or advanced stage. The patient must experience unbearable physical suffering and retain the capacity to make an informed decision until the end.
Whether a patient meets those conditions will be determined by a single physician, with mandatory consultations involving other health professionals. Although Parliament approved the law in mid-July, the government must still issue the necessary implementing regulations before healthcare workers can apply the new rules in practice. Relatively few countries have introduced similar rights so far, including Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada and Uruguay.
Photo: Arhiva na
