Debate, but not yet vote. This afternoon, the bill on the end of life, of deputies Claeys and Léonetti, is entering the National Assembly. A very smooth entry since, as the daily La Croix explains to us, it will be a debate without a vote, “to allow elected officials to express themselves on this sensitive subject”. The traditional examination with tabling of amendments and voting will not take place until March.
On this divisive subject, the government has clearly chosen the voice of participatory democracy. Indeed, before arriving in Parliament, debates took place throughout France, a group of hand-picked citizens gave their opinion, as well as numerous institutions – the Ethics Committee, the Council of order…
This January 21, the deputies are therefore invited to discuss the advances proposed by the two deputies: the right for all patients to benefit from terminal sedation and the creation of binding advance directives. The text excludes assisted suicide and euthanasia. For the Cross, the challenge, on the right as on the left, should therefore only be limited to a limited fringe of deputies. They still have every intention of making themselves heard. About twenty opposition politicians have just published a column in Le Figaro to warn of the dangers of the end-of-life bill. “Establishing deep sedation as a right and as an ultimate solution, ignoring the complexity of each case, takes the risk of transforming it into a euthanasia which does not say its name”, believe these deputies.
In any case, the government knows it: the proposed law will satisfy neither pro- nor anti-euthanasia. But between the two, there are still a good number of French people…
