France: What is the difference between medical assistance in dying and the current law?

Published on : 04/10/2022 – 06:00

President Emmanuel Macron has decided to launch a citizens’ convention in October, for a period of six months, after the publication by the National Ethics Advisory Committee of an opinion in favor of active assistance in dying, strictly supervised. This highly sensitive issue is presented as a major societal project at the start of the second five-year term.

Today in France, the law allows deep sedation until death: what is the difference with medical assistance in dying? In what context can a patient formulate his advance directives?

• Dr Denis LABAYLE, Doctor, head of service for twenty-five years in the Paris region, Denis Labayle is at the origin of the manifesto of the 2000 caregivers who, in 2007, claimed to have helped patients to die at the end of their lives. Co-president of the association Le Choix. Author of the book The Doctor, freedom and death. For the right to choose one’s end of life Plon editions

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