CHURCH leaders in France have warned against rushing into ill-considered legislation to allow euthanasia, after the move was approved by the country’s National Consultative Ethics Council.
“Over decades, a balance has been found between relentless treatment and the promotion of palliative care — this ‘French path’ has gained a following and says something about our ethical heritage,” the Roman Catholic Bishops’ Conference of France said in a weekend statement.
“During the Covid-19 crisis, our society made weighty sacrifices to save lives, particularly of the most fragile, even over-isolating the sick or elderly to preserve their bodily health. How can it be possible, just a few months after this great national mobilisation, that society now sees no other answer to life’s fragility than active help in dying and suicide?”
The Bishops were reacting to President Macron’s launch of a Citizens’ Convention on euthanasia, in line with pledges before his April re-election. The move is expected to lead to legislation during 2023.
The Bishops said that “authentic democratic discernment” required listening “seriously and calmly” to a range of opinions, including those of “different religious traditions”.
The Protestant Federation in France said that it had published reflections on euthanasia in 2021, and would actively participate with other religious communities in the Citizens’ Convention.
“For Christians, dignity is intrinsic to every person created in the image of God: it is neither gained nor forfeited,” the Federation’s statement said. “Given the inadequacy of resources currently allocated to palliative care, we share the fear that this proposed legislative change is mainly motivated by economic or ideological considerations.”
Assisted-dying legislation was voted down in 2021; French doctors can currently keep terminally ill patients sedated under a 2016 law, without hastening their death.
In a report published in mid-September, however, the Ethics Council reversed previous findings, and said that “active assistance in dying” could now be allowed “under strict conditions”, despite strong opposition from religious leaders and parliamentarians opposed to euthanasia.
If enacted, the proposed law, which enjoys majority support in opinion polls, will make the country Europe’s sixth country to allow euthanasia and assisted dying after the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Spain. Parallel laws are being considered in several others, including Germany and Portugal.