French lawmakers take another crack at assisted dying bill

PARIS (CN) — On Wednesday, lawmakers adopted two bills that could reshape the future of life and death in France.

Wednesday marked the next stage of a yearslong debate that has sparked controversy across the political spectrum. When the National Assembly previously voted in favor of the two bills in May 2025, they were rejected by the Senate and sent back to the drawing board roughly eight months later.

“You are organizing a right to cause death,” Hanane Mansouri, a right-wing lawmaker, said at the assembly on Wednesday. “You claim to defend freedom; in reality, you are installing permanent social pressure on the sick, the elderly, the disabled.”

One of the bills is focused on strengthening access to palliative care. It would create new “support homes” that would act as a middle ground between homes and hospitals, in addition to building more medical facilities and training additional caretakers. Its first iteration sought to make palliative care an enforceable right, but this was struck down by the Senate.

The more contentious second bill would create a “right to assisted dying” for people who meet strict criteria; they would have to be over the age of 18, French or residing in France, and suffering from a life-threatening, incurable illness in a terminal stage. They would also have to express the wish to end their lives themselves, eliminating the possibility of advance directives.

In these cases, lawmakers have specified the individual should self-administer the lethal substance except in cases that would require a health professional. The bills still must pass through the Senate before becoming law.

The proposals have garnered mixed reactions from activist groups. Ultimate Liberty, which advocates for assisted suicide as an individual right, views the assisted dying measure as too restrictive, especially since a doctor would have to authorize the procedure. Accompanying Life Until Death, on the other hand, worries this could open the floodgates for looser laws around suicide and worse palliative care as a consequence.  

“This law is entirely under medical authority, which is what we didn't want,” Pierre Blanchet, the secretary general of Ultimate Liberty, explained. “That means it's the doctor who will decide whether the person — and I'm using this term deliberately —deserves access to assisted suicide or euthanasia.”

Blanchet explained that medical associations usually argue that a doctor’s role is to heal. But for him, this constitutes a serious infringement on a person’s right to self-determination.

“The point that is absolutely unbearable for us is that it’s subject to a medical opinion,” he said. “In other words, we are no longer in control of our end of life — the doctor must decide.”

Philippe Lohéac, the general delegate of the Association for the Right to Die in Dignity, said that although the text has some shortcomings, it’s generally balanced and moderate. But the group has a major issue with the lack of advanced directives.

He described how in 2000, firefighter Vincent Humbert became quadriplegic, blind and mute after a car accident. He wrote to the former French President Jacques Chirac and expressed his strong desire to be euthanized; finally, his mother and a doctor helped him, but they were later charged with “premeditated poisoning” and “administering toxic substances.” The case sparked a nationwide debate on the topic of assisted suicide.

“The only major difficulty with this text is that it does not take requests for assisted dying that might have been made through advance directives into account,” Lohéac said. “Advance directives are a document that allows you to state your end-of-life wishes in the event that you are no longer able to express yourself.”

Under the new bills, Humbert would not have met the criteria for assisted suicide, Lohéac explained.

But Olivier de Margerie, the president of Accompanying Life Until Death, worries that presenting assisted suicide as an individual liberty risks pressuring people with terminal illnesses.  

“Vulnerable people would perceive the option of euthanasia as a kind of moral pressure from society, telling them ‘the end of your life is truly sad, you are very expensive for society, the care you receive is increasingly costly,’” he said. “Or ‘your stay in the nursing home is very, very expensive, and your children no longer have the money for it.’”

He fears the new bill could pave the way for more leniency on assisted suicide moving forward.  

“We believe that what might be voted on in 2026 will lead to expansions by 2036, within the next 10 years,” he said. “And from this standpoint, opening the door to the decriminalization of assisted suicide is a mistake, as it is an open door that will soon be opened much wider.”

In the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg — some of France’s closest neighbors — euthanasia is generally legalized under certain restrictions, which has put pressure on the government to implement similar laws.

But de Margerie is also concerned that legalizing assisted suicide could lead to less resources being devoted to palliative care.

“The second reason why we believe this is wrong is based on the following argument,” he explained. “Introducing the possibility of ending one's existence — where society organizes and facilitates the process — is a direction that will, in the fairly short term, lead to a reduction in the financial, political and technical efforts to develop palliative care that is available everywhere and accessible to everyone in France.”

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988, or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). Visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of resources.

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