France’s National Assembly passed a bill on Wednesday granting terminally ill adults the right to end their lives with medical assistance.
The bill has revealed the deep ideological fracture in France between progressives such as Macron and traditionalists
The assisted dying bill (droit à l’aide à mourir)was backed by 291 MPs with 241 against. It is the fourth time the text has been approved by the lower house, but in the past the upper house (the Senate) has rejected the bill.
The impasse prompted the government to activate a mechanism in the constitution that allows the Assembly to have the final say without the consent of the Senate.
In a lengthy post on X on Wednesday evening Macron welcomed the adoption of the bill, a process he dated back to 2022 when he ‘made the commitment to open this path with the French people.’ The president expressed his gratitude to ‘all the parliamentarians who enabled a constructive and respectful debate.’
The bill has revealed the deep ideological fracture in France between progressives such as Macron and traditionalists. One of Macron’s government ministers, Laurent Panifous, caused outrage last week when it was disclosed he was planning a ‘celebration cocktail’ once the bill had cleared parliament.
Bruno Retailleau, the leader of the centre-right Républicains (the party most opposed to the bill) said he was ‘deeply shocked’ to learn of the cocktail party. ‘Where is the dignity in celebrating with champagne a law dealing with the suffering and death of the most vulnerable?’ he asked.
The cocktail party was subsequently cancelled, but Panifous tweeted a jubilant message last night, declaring his ‘pride’ in a bill that he says will transform French society.
The conservative Le Figaro ran a furious op-ed on Thursday in response to the passing of the bill, stating: ‘History will record that an exhausted government, a makeshift National Assembly, a president more unpopular than ever, and the “weakest” Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic combined cynicism, cowardice and ideology to enable the state to administer death in the middle of the summer of 2026.’
Another person who believes France has taken the first step down a dangerous path is the country’s most celebrated novelist, Michel Houellebecq, who describes it as ‘indefensible’ in a civilised society.
Laurent Ulrich, the Archbishop of Paris, reiterated the opposition of the Catholic church to the bill, stating ‘that what our society needs, more than assistance in dying, is assistance in living.’
This sentiment was echoed by the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, the most venerable mosque in France. Islam ‘rejects’ euthanasia, said Chems-eddine Hafiz, adding that there ‘there is a path marked by mercy: that of palliative care, of pain relief, and of offering a brotherly presence to those who are about to depart.’
Among care-workers, opinion is divided between those in favour of assisted dying and those who describe it as ‘ethical vertigo’.
Despite Wednesday’s vote, the bill will not pass into law until its text has been reviewed by the Constitutional Council, France’s highest constitutional authority. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu referred the bill to the Council because he believed it had not been adequately debated in the Senate.
Few of the bill’s opponents have much faith that the Council will do anything other than ratify the text. Several members of the Council, including its staunch Socialist president, Richard Ferrand, have in the past publicly supported assisted dying.
Jean-Éric Schoettl, a former secretary-general of the Constitutional Council, believes they should recuse themselves on the grounds of ‘personal ethics’.
Macron will hope that the Council do not raise any objections. He has barely anything to show for his disastrous nine and a half years in power; he is desperate to leave one legacy, no matter how divisive and controversial it is.
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