Fourteen months have passed since Emmanuel Macron launched the national end-of-life debate, and there remains confusion over the content and timing of the bill, which was originally due to be finalized at the end of the summer. As is the method. The text will be submitted to the Council of Ministers ” In December “for a first reading in the National Assembly “in January or February”, assured on Wednesday November 8th Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, Minister Delegate responsible for Territorial Organization and Health Professions. But nothing is less certain. The executive branch could postpone consideration of the text on the grounds that the draft law to include voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) in the constitution is already on the parliamentary agenda.

The delay is largely due to painful decisions that need to be made. The head of state is due to meet with the ministers concerned soon. A first version of the textwhich dates back to the beginning of October and The world could consult, opened the way to one “Euthanasia” for adults suffering from an incurable disease that causes refractory suffering and whose life prognosis does not exceed one year.

This first version provided that “on principle”, “The administration of the deadly substance would be carried out by the person himself”. If the patient is not “physically capable” To commit suicide, he could ask a doctor, nurse or relative to give him the deadly substance. The text therefore allows the exception of euthanasia without naming it.

However, the head of state could decide to delete it from the bill before sending it to the State Council. Even if it means leaving parliament “enrich” the government’s copy, as he wrote in a letter addressed on October 25 to Jean-Luc Romero, honorary president of the Association for the Right to Die with Dignity.

“Holding a referendum would be a postponement”

Further arbitration delays the completion of the text. This time it’s financial. What resources can the state provide to improve support for patients at the end of their life in the last days, weeks or months? The copy of the bill prepared in October notably provided for the creation of “Support houses” for people at the end of their lives who can no longer stay at home. A new type of medical-social facility that would be financed by health insurance. For an amount that has yet to be quantified.

There remains one final unknown: the manner in which the future law will be passed. In a letter to party leaders on November 5, Emmanuel Macron again proposed the idea of ​​expanding the scope of Article 11 of the Constitution to allow referendums on social issues “like the end of life, which is sometimes mentioned”. A project he has been talking about since the 2022 presidential campaign.

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