The majority of French people ignore both the legislative framework for the end of life and the solutions that exist to relieve family carers, according to the results of an Ifop survey for ADREA Foundation. There are solutions, but only 22% of carers have received information and support from a health professional.
Only 53% of French people said that the end of life is well taken care of in France.
However, some devices that the majority of respondents consider essential already exist. “Indeed, the possibility of deep and continuous sedation (88% of French people are in favor) is indeed part of the new rights created for people with serious and incurable diseases, whose “vital prognosis is committed in the short term” and who present “suffering refractory to treatment” by the Claeys-Léonetti law of February 3, 2016″, recalls Fondation ADRÉA.
The Leonetti law, little known to the French
This survey reveals that 87% of those interviewed say they have heard of this law relating to the rights of patients and the end of life, voted in 2005, which regulates the conditions of care for sick people at the end of life. But, only 45% of them know what it is. More than ten years after the Leonetti law, 62% of French people have never heard of the new law governing the end of life and 42% of them believe that it does not meet the expectations and needs of people who live their last moments.
Few French expressed their wish
The end of life worries the French and three situations are of particular concern to them: losing one’s mind (55%), dependency (53%) and physical pain (46%).
This study also tells us that the majority (85%) of French people want home as a place of end of life. And, in this situation, 51% of French people consider it “essential” and 41% “important” that their loved ones be informed today of what they want in terms of care and treatment, in the event that, in a situation end of life, they are not able to express their will. However, only 12% of respondents wrote down their wishes.
“This study aims to draw up an inventory of the issues facing the French in terms of end of life, to create the conditions for a serene debate on the subject and to build calls for projects that are as close as possible to the needs of people”, explains Christiane Hubert, President of the ADREA Foundation.
The survey was conducted with a sample of 1002 people, representative of the French population aged 18 and over.
Read also:
Euthanasia: 9 out of 10 French people are in favor of it
Euthanasia: 8 out of 10 French people refuse therapeutic relentlessness
End of life: the French in favor of “deep sedation”
