Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
France's euthanasia bill has passed three times in the National Assembly and it has been defeated three times in their Senate. If the bill passes in the National Assembly on July 15, it will legalize euthanasia and bypass the opposition of the Senate.
Similar to Canada, France's euthanasia bill legalizes both euthanasia and assisted suicide. The Canadian experience is that nearly every assisted death did so with the doctor administering the poison (euthanasia) rather than the person self-administering the poison (assisted suicide).
In Ontario, Canada's largest province, the 2025 euthanasia report states that, since legalization, there were 28,634 euthanasia deaths and 3 assisted suicide deaths.
France's National Assembly has sold the concept of poisoning people as something that will be done in exceptional circumstances. This is the same argument that was made in Canada, but the opposite has happened.
In 2025, there were approximately 17,700 medical homicide (euthanasia) deaths in Canada representing approximately 5.6% of all deaths with Québec killing more than 8% of all deaths.
Since Canada legalized medical homicide there has been more than 103,000 assisted deaths. These statistics indicate how killing has become common in Canada.
Don't follow Canada's lead.
Euthanasia has changed the nature of healthcare in Canada. Canada is experiencing a crisis with the cost of healthcare.
Euthanasia is now being sold to Canadians as a form of healthcare. A recent report indicated that at least 24,000 Canadians died in 2025 while on a waiting list for treatment, once can understand how legalizing euthanasia is not simply an option but for many it is perceived as the only option.
To make things worse, euthanasia laws almost always expand. The death lobby knows that it is harder to legalize euthanasia than it is to expand the law, once it is legal.
Canada legalized euthanasia in 2016 with a requirement that a person must be terminally ill before they can be killed by euthanasia.
Once the law expanded to people who were not terminally ill, stories of people with disabilities being approved to be killed because they were living in poverty, homeless, or having difficulty obtaining medical treatment started to be reported in the media. A Mississauga food bank stated that people needing their services were seeking death by euthanasia based on poverty.
France's bill, like every euthanasia bill claims to have "safeguards."
France's euthanasia bill is being sold to the public as having "strict" safeguards. The truth is that none of these bills have "strict" safeguards that limit the killing to exceptional circumstances. These laws employ undefined language that is designed to approve the killing of people by medical staff that have been given total legally immunity from prosecution.
France's bill states that the person is limited to - Adults who are French citizens or long-term residents suffering from an incurable and grave illness in an advanced or terminal stage, facing constant, intolerable physical or psychological pain
What does it mean to be suffering from a grave illness? Or to be in an advanced or terminal stage? Or to be facing constant intolerable physical suffering? Or psychological suffering?
Claire Brosseau, is a Canadian actress who is participating in a court challenge bacause she wants to die by euthanasia based on mental illness alone. Brosseau claims to be living with intolerable psychological suffering. If Brosseau were a long-term resident of France would she be killed by euthanasia?
Is it possible to determine who is suffering from intolerable physical or psychological suffering? Suffering is personal and subjective. Psychological suffering is real, but is it irremediable?
France's bill suggests that people will be expected to self-administer the lethal substance (assisted suicide). However, if a medical professional confirms the person is physically incapable of doing so, a doctor or nurse can administer it for them (euthanasia).
This is different than Canada's law but if passed, the law will be forced to expand since i is easier for a doctor or nurse to administer the lethal poison than for a person to self-administer the poison.
France's bill suggests that a medical team (including at least two doctors or a nurse) must verify the patient’s condition and free will.
Having two doctors or a nurse verify a patient's condition is not a "safeguard." In every jurisdiction, there are medical staff who are willing to kill patients who will approve patients for killing and they will work with like minded medical staff to approve the killing. In other words, this system provides little effective oversight of the law.
Patients will "doctor shop." Some medical staff who are willing to kill will interpret the law more widely than others. Some medical staff will not approve killing people under certain circumstances while others will be happy to do so.
France's bill states that medical professionals are not required to participate in the act of killing but they are required to refer patients to medical staff who are willing to arrange the killing. This means that medical professionals who oppose killing must be complicit in the act.
Further to that, medical institutions are required to participate and allow patients to be killed. This provision will force some medical institutions to close.
France's euthanasia bill includes a 1.1 Billion euro palliative care expansion package. France's Senate has defeated the euthanasia bill three times while overwhelmingly supporting the palliative care expansion package.
Increased funding for palliative care does not assure expansion palliative care availability. Most provinces in Canada pay for euthanasia through palliative care funding codes. Therefore, it is impossible to know how much money is being spent on palliative care and how much money is being spent on killing.
1 comment:
Excellent summary Alex. Ordinary people don't necessarily see through the lies yet. But those in power have no excuse. The jury is no longer out. Instead, it is the cat which is now getting out ... of the false informational bag.
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