April 11, 2018.
The Economic, Social and Environmental Council has indicated that it is in favor of the legalization of “explicitly lethal deep sedation” for people who request it at the end of their life.
For an explicitly lethal deep sedation
Questions about the end of life are at the heart of passionate discussions, particularly on the occasion of the General Conference on bioethics which is currently taking place throughout France. It is in this context that the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) adopted on Tuesday April 10 an opinion calling on the legislator to authorize the ” explicitly lethal deep sedation ” for people who ask for it at the end of their life.
This euthanasia, which does not say its name, could however only be done “ under strictly defined conditions “. The patient could have access to this deep sedation either by writing advance directives or by designating a trusted person who would speak for him when the time comes. To justify his position, the EESC relied on an online petition which collected more than 350,000 signatures.
A difficult debate
The Cese specifies that this ” explicitly lethal deep sedation “Could only apply to people suffering from suffering” an incurable disease, in an advanced or even terminal phase “. Currently, the law (Claeys-Leonetti of February 2, 2016) gives the right to a ” deep and continuous sedation », Which must precede a natural death. It is not the doctor who causes death.
For its part, the French Society for Support and Palliative Care (SFAP) denounced a proposal ” scandalous “. ” Giving death is not a cure. It is a gesture in total contradiction with the philosophy of palliative care», Lamented Anne de la Tour, president of the SFAP, in the columns of theFigaro. Discussions around this text are likely to be stormy.
Marine Rondot
To read also: Near the end of life: how to support it?
