France's National Assembly adopts long-debated bill legalizing
end-of-life options
[May 28, 2025]
By SYLVIE CORBET
PARIS (AP) — France’s lower house of parliament adopted a bill Tuesday
to allow adults with incurable illness to take lethal medication, as
public demands grow across Europe for legal end-of-life options.
The National Assembly vote is a key step on the long-debated issue,
though others remain before the bill can become law.
“I’m thinking of all the patients and their loved ones that I’ve met
over more than a decade. Many are no longer here, and they always told
me: Keep fighting," said Olivier Falorni, the bill's general rapporteur,
amid applause from fellow lawmakers.
The proposed measure on lethal medication defines assisted dying as
allowing use under certain conditions so that people may take it
themselves. Only those whose physical condition doesn’t allow them to do
it alone would be able to get help from a doctor or a nurse.
The bill, which received 305 votes in favor and 199 against, will be
sent to the Senate, where the conservative majority could seek to amend
it. A definitive vote on the measure could take months to be scheduled
amid France’s long and complex process. The National Assembly has final
say over the Senate.
Activists have criticized the complexity and length of the parliamentary
process that they say is penalizing patients waiting for end-of-life
options.
In parallel, another bill on palliative care meant to reinforce measures
to relieve pain and preserve patients’ dignity was also adopted Tuesday,
unanimously.
The bill has strict conditions
To benefit, patients would need to be over 18 and be French citizens or
live in France.
A team of medical professionals would need to confirm that the patient
has a grave and incurable illness “at an advanced or terminal stage,” is
suffering from intolerable and untreatable pain and is seeking lethal
medication of their own free will.
Patients with severe psychiatric conditions and neurodegenerative
disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease won’t be eligible.
The person would initiate the request for lethal medication and confirm
the request after a period of reflection. If approved, a doctor would
deliver a prescription for the lethal medication, which could be taken
at home or at a nursing home or a health care facility.
A 2023 report indicated that most French citizens back legalizing
end-of-life options, and opinion polls show growing support over the
past 20 years.
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 Initial discussions in parliament
last year were abruptly interrupted by President Emmanuel Macron’s
decision to dissolve the National Assembly, plunging France into a
months-long political crisis.
“What a long road it has been, contrary to what the
public thought, contrary to what the French people believed,” said
Jonathan Denis, president of the Association for the Right to Die
With Dignity (ADMD).
Months-long debate ahead
Earlier this month, Macron suggested he could ask French voters to
approve the measure via referendum if parliament discussions get off
track.
Macron on Tuesday called the vote an important step, adding on
social media that "with respect for different sensibilities, doubts,
and hopes, the path of fraternity I had hoped for is gradually
beginning to open. With dignity and humanity.”
Many French people have traveled to neighboring countries where
medically assisted suicide or euthanasia are legal.
Medically assisted suicide involves patients taking, of their own
free will, a lethal drink or medication prescribed by a doctor to
those who meet certain criteria. Euthanasia involves doctors or
other health practitioners giving patients who meet certain criteria
a lethal injection at their own request.
“I cannot accept that French men and women have to go to Switzerland
— if they can afford it — or to Belgium to be supported in their
choice, or that French men and women are being accompanied
clandestinely in other countries," Denis said.
Religious leaders object
French religious leaders this month issued a joint statement to
denounce the bill, warning about the dangers of an “anthropological
rupture.” The Conference of Religious Leaders in France (CRCF),
which represents the Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim
and Buddhist communities, said the proposed measures risk exerting
pressure on older people and those with illnesses or disabilities.
Assisted suicide is allowed in Switzerland and several U.S. states.
Euthanasia is currently legal in the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal,
Canada, Australia, Colombia, Belgium and Luxembourg under certain
conditions.
In the U.K., lawmakers are debating a bill to help terminally ill
adults end their lives in England and Wales after giving it initial
approval in November.
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