Debate is beginning at the National Assembly on French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposed end-of-life bill. It would create a legal framework for the terminally ill to get help to die; a highly contentious issue. FRANCE 24's Solange Mougin tells us what's in the bill, how changes to it are already controversial and how assisted suicide is carried out in other EU nations.
This Entre Nous aired on Paris Direct, May 27, 2024. A programme produced by Amanda Alexander, Marina Pajovic and Georgina Robertson.
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This Entre Nous aired on Paris Direct, May 27, 2024. A programme produced by Amanda Alexander, Marina Pajovic and Georgina Robertson.
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
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https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Report from Solange Mougin, who joins me now on the set.
00:03 Hi, Solange.
00:04 So as we just heard in your report, the debate over this bill is very long.
00:08 It's expected to be very divisive.
00:10 But just set the scene for us first, if you will.
00:12 Where does France stand at the moment when it comes to euthanasia, assisted suicide and
00:16 any end-of-life law?
00:17 Well, since 2016, there has been a law on the books called the Cleis-Leonetti law, and
00:24 it allows the terminally ill to be put into a continuous deep sleep sedation until death.
00:31 But such measures are only applied in the final days or moments of someone's life.
00:35 So healthcare professionals and also right-to-die associations, they have long pleaded for additional
00:41 measures to help the dying.
00:43 But whether to do that and how is highly, of course, contentious.
00:48 There are deep divisions on this culturally, but also within families.
00:53 There are those who have a religious view.
00:55 They feel that it's murder or a sin.
00:57 And then there are others who feel it's my life.
01:00 It should be my right to choose how and when to die.
01:03 So for help with these often explosive questions, France looked to other countries in Europe
01:08 to see how they are navigating this minefield, essentially.
01:12 But before we get into that, into what country allows what or not, there are a few terms
01:17 and words that we have to break down first.
01:20 The government is calling this a help to die bill and not a euthanasia measure.
01:25 For many people in France, euthanasie or euthanasia in French, well, it has a sort of putting
01:31 down of an animal connotation.
01:33 Technically, there are two kinds of euthanasia, passive and active.
01:38 Active is, or some call it actually aggressive.
01:42 Euthanasia is actually the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable disease.
01:48 Whereas passive euthanasia is intentionally letting the patient die by withholding artificial
01:53 life support measures such as a ventilator or feeding tubes.
01:57 Now, some people actually advocate for active euthanasia because they say it is quicker
02:01 and less painful.
02:03 Finally, there is the term assisted suicide or medically helping someone die, but that
02:08 requires the person to administer the drugs themselves.
02:11 Now, this too has a negative connotation, of course, because of the word suicide.
02:16 Cécile Lange, before you were mentioning about how France was looking at what other
02:18 European countries do, what do they do?
02:21 How do they treat this?
02:22 Well, let's begin with the countries where it's completely illegal.
02:25 In Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Malta, helping a dying person to end their life is a crime
02:31 and you can serve prison for it.
02:33 Same goes with Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Lithuania, and Latvia, as we see
02:38 on the map there.
02:39 It's also the case in Ireland and in the UK, where euthanasia can be considered involuntary
02:45 homicide or murder.
02:47 That's in the UK.
02:48 As for helping assisted suicide, it holds a 14-year prison sentence there.
02:53 And then there are countries, as we see in the orange and yellow, where passive euthanasia
02:58 is permitted to various degrees.
03:02 For example, in France, doctors can propose the option of stopping extreme measures like
03:06 feeding tubes if the person can no longer eat.
03:09 Much of Europe has some sort of stance on passive euthanasia or assisted suicide.
03:14 In some countries, the framework is through the laws.
03:17 And in others, like Austria, Germany, and in Italy, it's actually the court's decisions
03:22 and their precedents that have created a sort of status quo.
03:24 Now, a quick word here on Switzerland, as it's often called a pro-assisted suicide
03:29 nation.
03:31 Active euthanasia is actually illegal there, but passive euthanasia is actually neither
03:36 illegal nor legal there.
03:38 It's not mentioned in the laws, except for the fact that there cannot be a quote-unquote
03:42 selfish motive for it.
03:44 But what's interesting about Switzerland is that its associations and nonprofits that
03:50 help people.
03:51 The first was created in 1982, and it's these groups that actually have created a
03:55 societal framework of how it should work, which has created a sort of general acceptance
04:01 in Switzerland about the practice.
04:03 Right.
04:04 So Switzerland does not allow active euthanasia, but some other countries in Europe actually
04:08 do.
04:09 So in the Netherlands and in Belgium, active euthanasia, or when a doctor decides and does
04:14 something to deliberately kill someone who is dying already, it is legal in those nations.
04:19 Now, on top of that, in the Netherlands and in Spain, assisted suicide is also legal.
04:24 Now, to focus on the Netherlands case particularly, the Dutch actually became the first in the
04:28 world in 2001 to legalize active euthanasia.
04:32 Of all of the deaths in the nation, such cases amount on average to about 5% in people's
04:39 minds.
04:40 As well, though, it's important to note it is actually becoming a sort of normalish
04:42 way to die.
04:44 That does not mean, though, that there aren't strict controls about it.
04:48 Patients need to willfully request to die.
04:51 There have to be signs as well of unbearable suffering.
04:56 More than one doctor has to okay the move, and also a coroner has to make sure that everything
05:01 went as planned if the ill person's, in this ill person's quest to end their life.
05:09 All right, Solange, thank you so much for looking into that for us today.
05:11 It is a very complicated issue as it gets, those debates get underway here in France.