The citizens’ convention on the end of life, which since December has brought together French people drawn by lot to guide the action of the executive on the subject, concluded its debates on Sunday April 2, confirming its majority position to legalize euthanasia or assisted suicide.
“For a majority of citizens of the convention, access to active assistance in dying must be open”, is it written in its final report, which was submitted to the vote of its members Sunday at the close of the meetings. debates organized at the headquarters of the Social, Economic and Environmental Council (CESE), which organizes the convention.
However, it also lays down nuances and conditions. In particular, the convention does not express a majority position on the case of minors or that of persons incapable of expressing their will. The report also precisely details various positions, including the minority position against legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide.
Difficulties in accessing what is already provided for by law
This convention, convened at the call of the government in the fall of 2022, brings together 184 French people drawn by lot, whose opinion aims to guide the action of the executive. Meeting twenty-seven days in total since December, its members had to say if the current legislation on the end of life, fixed by the Claeys-Leonetti law of 2016, appears adapted to all situations and if changes should be made.
The latter authorizes “prolonged and continuous sedation”, in other words a permanent plunge into unconsciousness, for patients in a desperate state in the short term and whose suffering is intolerable. But it does not go so far as to authorize “active assistance in dying”, that is to say either an act of euthanasia by a caregiver or assistance in suicide.
At the end of their discussions, the French people gathered in agreement mostly felt that the current end-of-life framework was not suitable. However, they do not only hold the current legislation responsible for this.
They also underline the concrete difficulties of access to what is provided for by law, in particular an adequate supply of palliative care. As such, the convention emphasizes the “alarming situation” of the French health system.
An additional “manifesto” submitted to the government
Beyond the single question of euthanasia or assisted suicide, the convention therefore makes a long list of recommendations to develop palliative care and facilitate access to it.
The uncertainty now concerns the concrete translation of these recommendations, in particular the drafting of a new law. Emmanuel Macron, who had in the past spoken out for a change in the law but now refrains from speaking out clearly, is to receive the participants of the convention on Monday to say what follow-up he intends to give to their work.
To see their recommendations find concrete follow-up, the participants thus chose to submit to the government, in addition to their report, a “manifesto” – the entirety of which Le Monde reveals here -, read in the hemicycle of the Palace of Jena on Sunday morning, at the conclusion of the work. “Grab this end-of-life issue, which is a major societal issue,” they wrote to government and lawmakers.
