LThe great end-of-life debate will have spawned a muddle unless the long-awaited law gives very limited hope to patients who have exhausted all options for care and care, alongside details of palliative care, which has contributed to dying. However, this is what the Minister’s indications make us fear. [déléguée chargée de l’organisation territoriale et des professions de santé] Agnès Firmin Le Bodo continued The draft law will be presented to the Council of Ministers in December. There is a risk here of a new law for (almost) nothing.

The worst thing is not so much the priority that would undoubtedly be given to the patient’s self-administration of the lethal product (known as “assisted suicide”), an option currently favored by the government – ​​under pressure from medical institutions. Fortunately, it would be mitigated: it would be so unfair to abandon those who cannot make the final gesture themselves to their fate that a “Law of Humanity” – in the words of the Minister – to allow the administration of the lethal product by a third party (“Euthanasia exception”it is said) is being investigated.

This regulation is fragile, whereas it would be best if all patients entitled to euthanasia had the choice between the two modalities, but always with the support of a nurse who can place an infusion, even if that means that the The patient takes the steering wheel into his own hands. This would avoid the regurgitation incidents sometimes complained about elsewhere and would correspond to both a spirit of solidarity and freedom.

What is “medium term”?

What is even more dangerous is the situation that the minister presents as obvious “important forecast committed to the medium term” to benefit from active end-of-life care. It would actually deprive the law of much of its practical scope.

It should be a ” Red line “ presented by the President of the Republic. Her Speech from April 3, 2023 to the members of the Citizens’ Convention but was far from it. In listing the requirements for eligibility for euthanasia, he identified judgment, the incurable dimension of the illness, and the reluctance of mental and physical suffering, before mentioning, albeit hypothetically and without further explanation: “Vital Forecasting Commitment”.

We must therefore remember the true origin and possible impact of a vital “medium term” forecast condition. It comes to us from too famous “Oregon Model” which is described in the 2012 Sicard report as the least bad form of euthanasia, but is fundamentally rejected. To benefit from a prescription for a lethal product, a patient must only have a life expectancy of six months or less. In 2022 Opinion 139 of the National Advisory Ethics Commission put this question about the foreseeable delay of death at the center of his considerations.

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