The process of adopting a law to introduce euthanasia has been put on hold by the dissolution of the National Assembly in June and the changes of government in France in recent months. Since the appointment of François Bayrou as prime minister, the project is expected to make a comeback, but in a modified form. Bayrou intends to dissociate the question of euthanasia from that of developing palliative care—a strategic choice considered to favour the latter. This was enough to attract the wrath of the pro-euthanasia lobby.
The reform of end-of-life laws has been poisoning French political life for months. While a highly progressive law was about to be voted on in the spring, the dissolution of the National Assembly in June 2024 interrupted the legislative process, forcing a restart.
Prime Minister François Bayrou, who took office shortly before Christmas, is personally not in favour of any legislative change that would authorise assisted suicide and, in some cases, euthanasia. He has advocated for separate parliamentary debates on two distinct laws: one on euthanasia and the other focusing on the expansion of palliative care.
The prime minister’s teams have justified this by saying that euthanasia “is a matter of conscience,” while palliative care is “society’s duty towards those who are going through this ordeal.”
The distinction was a request from opponents of euthanasia, who were worried that the two causes would be mixed up in a single piece of legislation—a confusion that in practice, experience abroad has shown, always results in palliative care being sacrificed in favour of euthanasia, which is less costly but ethically dangerous.
Claire Fourcade, a doctor and spokeswoman for the cause of palliative care, is delighted with Bayrou’s choice. “The most urgent thing is to provide care, not to make people die,” she told the media. Fourcade had long been calling for two separate laws to be drafted: “The subject of palliative care, which could move forward very quickly, is being held back by being coupled with a more divisive and complex subject,” she lamented a short while ago.
Supporters of euthanasia are furious: they fear that the two texts will lead to the most controversial part of the euthanasia bill being dropped altogether. The pro-euthanasia lobby, represented by the Association pour le Droit à Mourir dans la Dignité (ADMD or Association for the Right to Die with Dignity), expressed its indignation on X: “Separating the text means giving in to the religious representatives and opponents of euthanasia, separating it in order to ultimately do nothing…”
The combination of euthanasia and palliative care in the previous draft was a conscious strategy designed to legitimise a legislative advancement that was questionable to many. By voting for the combined version of the law, opponents of euthanasia could always try to forget their misdeeds by saying that they supported palliative care ’at the same time.’ This will no longer be possible if Bayrou holds to his line.
By pushing in this direction, Bayrou is guaranteed to win the support of the conservative ministers in his government—Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, for example, who is vigorously hostile to euthanasia. But he obviously runs the risk of offending the most progressive left wing of the macronists who support him in the assembly. The President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, already at the forefront of the fight in favour of abortion, is now putting pressure on Bayrou to reverse his decision.
