Act on French MPs to allow you to die

French deputies voted to allow some people in the last stages of a terminal illness right to help die.

The National Assembly approved the bill supported by President Emmanuel Macron, at 305 votes to 199. Now he will go to the upper house, the Senate, before the second reading in the National Assembly. Proponents hope this will become a law by 2027.

This would make France the eighth country in the European Union to allow the version to die.

As currently designed, the French version would not be as permitted as in the Netherlands or neighboring Belgium, which were the first European countries to legalize help to die.

A separate bill, which creates the right to palliative assistance, has gone through the non -alternative one. It is estimated that 48% of French patients do not receive this.

Most of the two -week debate in the assembly was focused on the terms under which the patient may claim to die.

The approved formula is designed for “people affected by a serious and incurable illness”, which is “life -threatening, as well as in its advanced or terminal stages”, which are in “constant physical or psychological suffering”.

The patient would have to “express his intention” freely. They will have to wait 48 hours and then confirm it.

After resolution, the death dose will be independently prescribed to the patient; Either from a medical assistant when the patient was incapable.

The resolution will be granted to the doctor, but only after consultation with peers.

MPs were allowed to vote free of charge on the bill – a reflection of how the differences of opinions in this issue are not amenable to the party line. In general, this measure was supported by the center and left against the right and populist right.

Conservative critics-points of views on the once dominant Catholic Church were concerned that the definitions in the bill were too wide, opening the path to death for patients who may have to live.

As in other countries where ethical problems were very discussed, opponents are afraid that vulnerable elderly people can feel under pressure to die to remove the burden from their families.

In the demonstration against the bill outside the National Assembly on Saturday, one 44-year-old woman suffering from Parkinson’s disease, said it would be like a “loaded gun left on my bedside table.”

Some left who wanted to strengthen the government’s bill by expanding access to the death of minors, non -phrasal citizens and patients who leave the instructions before entering a coma.

According to the bill, medical staff who oppose death will not be obliged to implement it. However, it would be a crime punished for two years in prison to try to block the act of helping to die.

Conservatives wanted to create another crime – incitement to death. But this amendment was rejected by MPs.

Prime Minister François Bire, who is engaged in a Catholic, said that if he had a vote on the bill, he refrained. Because he is not a deputy, he had no vote.