France Rejects Euthanasia Bill

In France, the Senate has once again rejected a bill to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide. 151 senators voted against the key article of the law, while 118 voted in favor. The Senate refused to support the principle of official medical involvement in ending a person’s life.
Another text regarding the development of palliative care, a system for assisting severely ill individuals and alleviating pain at the end of life, was adopted almost unanimously. This issue has sparked one of the most complex and painful public debates in France.
Proponents of the reform argue for the human right to make decisions about one’s own death and the possibility of ending suffering. Opponents believe that the state and medicine are crossing a line that alters the perception of human life.
During the debates, the chairman of the Les Républicains party, Bruno Retailleau, stated that such a law contradicts the essence of the Hippocratic Oath, which medicine has been based on for over two thousand years. One senator expressed the majority’s position: “Death can wait.”
There was no unified position even among the supporters of the reform. Socialists, communists, ecologists, and centrists voted differently. The divide runs not only through parliament but also through French society as a whole.