End of life: MPs adopt in committee a bill creating a "right" to assisted dying

It is now, following the adoption of an amendment, a "right" and no longer a simple "possibility" . The bill on "the end of life", voted on Friday, May 2, in the Social Affairs Committee of the National Assembly, before its examination by all the deputies, provides that any terminally ill person will be able to have this "right" to request assistance in dying (euthanasia or assisted suicide). A further step towards the decriminalization of a lethal act on medical decision, as provided for in the bill unveiled in March 2024 by Emmanuel Macron, and whose examination had been suspended by the dissolution of the National Assembly.

Split by Prime Minister François Bayrou, the executive's text was transformed into two bills. One, on palliative care, was unanimously adopted by the Assembly's Social Affairs Committee on April 11. The other, on assisted dying, was passed on May 2 by a vote of 28 to 15 (with one abstention). They will be examined one after the other in a public session in the Chamber beginning May 12.

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