France's euthanasia law allows doctors to kill incompetent people.
Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
On July 15, 2026; France's National Assembly passed a bill to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide by a vote of 291 to 241. This was the final vote in the National Assembly and it over rides the previous votes rejecting the euthanasia bill in France's Senate.
The battle was not over. Agence France-Presse reported on July 15 that:
The President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced Tuesday that he would refer the matter to the Constitutional Council, to take into account the oppositions that persist, especially on the right.
Sebastien Ostertag sent the following update from France. Ostertag reported:
The French Constitutional Council, which is similar to the US or Canadian Supreme Court, has upheld most of the current French euthanasia law.
Though euthanasia/assisted suicide will still be essentially as easy to obtain as the original law provided, there are a few freedom of conscience victories in the ruling. Most importantly, pharmacists now have conscience rights, which means that it will no longer be required of pharmacists to provide death drugs. Before this decision, all pharmacists would have been forced to provide the prescription death cocktail should they receive such an order. The judges respected the fundamental rights of pharmacists in this decision, which now means that all medical professionals dealing with MAID (medical aid in dying) will have the right to opt out.
Secondly, the court ruled that private religious establishments/retirement homes that don't want to allow MAID will be allowed to refuse as long as there are other locations nearby where a patient could get euthanized. If there aren't any other locations nearby then religious liberty is overridden by the new right to die. It puts religious establishments and their rights as secondary. However, it doesn't force them to close their doors, which is what would have happened had the Constitutional Council ruled that they didn't have a right to refuse.
Lastly, the court ruled that adults who have legal guardians due to age, IQ, cognitive ability, etc, will still be able to be euthanized so long as the physician carrying out the death has checked with their guardian. The decision doesn't give legal guardians the right to veto the physician, only that they must be consulted. In the end, the doctor still has the final say. This decision is essentially meaningless.
The question is now whether plaintiffs will file an appeal to the European courts, or whether they will accept this decision as is. In reality, the euthanasia law in France is still the second most extreme in the world after Canada and is on track to become the most extreme if those pushing its legalization get their way. They want euthanasia available for children as well as the defacto criminalization of suicide prevention. The 2027 French presidential elections will determine what happens next.
As much as we appreciate that the French Constitutional Court upholding certain conscience rights, it was concerning that religious liberty was treated as a secondary right and not a primary right.
It is shocking that the French Constitutional Court will allow euthanasia for people who cannot consent, such as people with cognitive disabilities. This decision will enable doctors to kill people with dementia, essentially emptying out the care homes.
Europe has not seen such a extreme eugenic law since the fall of Nazi Germany. People with disabilities, in France, need to rise up.
We encourage the plaintiffs to appeal this grave decision to the European court if not we can hope that the results of the 2027 French presidential elections will lead to a change in France.
No comments:
Post a Comment