After two days of debates, the law on the end of life carried by the deputies Alain Claeys (PS, Vienne) and Jean Leonetti (UMP, Alpes-Maritimes) was voted by a very large majority of votes: 436 for, 34 against and 83 abstentions.
This law does not authorize euthanasia or assisted suicide. But it establishes the right to “deep and continuous sedation” until death for terminally ill patients and makes “advance directives” binding.
The new law indeed provides that these directives, which allow any adult to make known their wishes on their end of life (and in particular on therapeutic relentlessness) will be binding on the doctor “except in the event of a vital emergency. for the time necessary for a complete assessment of the situation “, and that they will be without limit of validity. Until now, these advance directives were only valid for 3 years and the doctor was not obliged to follow them.
These advance directives will be kept in a national register but they will be revisable and revocable at any time.
The meeting was somewhat disrupted and a few minutes before the vote, leaflets on which was written “no to euthanasia” “R for resistance” were thrown from the public galleries on the Assembly.
The text should be considered in the Senate before the summer.
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Read also :
The French in favor of deep sedation
Euthanasia: 8 out of 10 French people refuse therapeutic relentlessness
