THE Bishops’ Conference of France (CEF) has urged the republic’s senators not to approve a government-backed assisted-dying law when it is put to a final vote next week (News, 30 May 2025).
“For more than 25 years, France has made a unique and precious choice — rejecting both unreasonably relentless treatment and induced death,” the Roman Catholic bishops argue.
“To present euthanasia and assisted suicide as acts of care gravely blurs ethical boundaries. Words are being twisted from their true meaning to anaesthetise consciences. . . One cannot care for life by providing death.”
The message was published as the Senate began debating the assisted-dying Bill, which was passed last May in the Lower House, the National Assembly, despite united opposition from all main Churches and faith communities.
The Bishops say that their motive is “neither primarily nor exclusively religious”, but to articulate the “profound concern” being expressed by the sick and disabled, and by their families and carers.
“The vote before the nation’s representatives involves not just an individual choice, but a societal one — can a human life, however weakened, be decently considered so useless as to warrant its termination?” says the message, signed by the CEF’s President, the Archbishop of Marseille, Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, and 15 other bishops and archbishops of the CEF’s permanent council.
“Life, at all stages till its end, is not a cause to be championed with preconceived ideas and a proud belief that we are all-powerful. . . A little humanity takes a lot of humility.”
The legislation, first tabled in June 2024, was endorsed as a “law of fraternity” by President Macron in his New Year address. It will replace laws from 2005 and 2016, which allow people nearing the end of life to refuse “futile medical care” and request continuous deep sedation to avoid unbearable suffering.
The RC Bishops say that their Church has a “long history” of “accompanying the sick and disabled, caregivers, and healthcare professionals” in its own hospitals and nursing homes. The Church is, they say, ready to assist with the development of better palliative care, which remains unavailable in parts of France.