French lawmakers adopt law granting right to assisted dying for sick patients

France has formally adopted legislation that allows for the right to assisted dying for adults who suffer from an incurable illness, joining a small group of countries across the world to grant such practice.

The law was officially published on August 19 after years of debate by lawmakers and allows assisted dying for patients of legal age who are French nationals or long-term residents and suffering from conditions that are assessed as incurable and are causing unbearable pain, Caliber.Az reports, citing French media outlets.

The law, which is formally known as "end of life" or "aid in dying", was approved by the country’s highest constitutional authority and published in the official journal.

In order to qualify for this procedure, a physician must verify the patient’s eligibility before a panel assesses whether the criteria have been met. Once approval for assisted dying has been granted, patients must wait at least two days before the procedure can be done. 

Due to the controversial aspect relating to ethics on this practice, there are only a handful of countries which grant the procedure at all. France joins the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada in granting this right. 

A precedent law already existed in France known as "passive euthanasia", which is the withholding of artificial life support, as well as deep sedation before death. Those who were seeking active end-of-life options had to travel to one of the above-mentioned countries for assisted dying, a form of tourism that is widely observed in those countries, as not all of them limit the right to their own citizens and residents.

President Emmanuel Macron, who promised a right-to-die law in his 2022 re-election campaign, welcomed the adoption of the law, which he described as “concluding an exemplary democratic debate”, while the text’s author, a centrist MP, called it “a major step forward”.

By Nazrin Sadigova