RELIGIOUS leaders in France have urged parliamentarians to reject a Bill, which has President Emmanuel Macron’s backing, to permit assisted dying. They warn that it risks undermining the country’s “social and ethical foundations”.
“Behind an apparent desire for compassion and supervision, this text will bring a radical shift,” the Conference of Religious Leaders (CRCF) said before the debate in the Assemblée Nationale this week. “It enshrines individual autonomy and self-determination as absolute, excluding any consultation with loved ones and healthcare teams, or any spiritual or psychological support — and taking no account of the relational and interdependent dimension of human existence.”
The CRCF said that the “euphemistic terminology” of the measure distorted words to “defuse the moral gravity” of assisted suicide, which many healthcare professionals feared would signify a “radical transgression of their mission”.
The Bill’s permissive provisions, allowing a single doctor to “authorise a lethal act”, with a period for reflection of just two days, contradicted “all international standards”, they said, and would add to “hidden but real pressure” on the elderly and disabled.
“Legalising administered death will not signify progress, but an ethical, social, and medical regression,” the message said. “Describing it as ‘natural’ is an untruth that aims to numb consciences and weaken public debate.”
The signatories are the President of the Protestant Federation, Pastor Christian Krieger, and Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist leaders.
Separate legislation guaranteeing end-of-life palliative care, requested by the new Premier, François Bayrou, is being debated alongside the Bill, which was described as a “law of fraternity” by President Macron last year.
The French daily Le Monde reported that the measure had provoked a rare degree of mobilisation by Churches and religious communities, which had voiced “clear and unequivocal opposition” through public meetings and social-media campaigns.