If we are to believe the polls, the case is heard and the holding of a Citizens’ Convention on the end of life, the work of which should begin on December 9 and end in mid-March 2023, should only be a formality.
The latest survey published in early October by Ifop on behalf of the Association for the Right to Die with Dignity (ADMD) confirms this: a large majority of French people – 78% – expect this agreement, desired by President Macron, to ‘she “promotes a change in the law with the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide”.
“A result that comes as no surprise since we have observed, for at least fifteen years, a massive and constant convergence of opinion on this subject, whatever the methodology or formulation used”underlines Frédéric Dabi, director general of the Ifop institute.
“Of all the major societal issues debated over the past half-century – decriminalization of abortion in 1975, abolition of the death penalty in 1981, marriage for all in 2013 – it is even the only one where the cleavages of all natures – age, gender, socio-professional categories or political opinions – can be considered marginal, including religious practice”he presses.
The weight of words in the formulation of questions
In fact, in January 2018, a survey carried out by Ifop for The cross highlighted the small gap between a general population 89% in favor of legalizing euthanasia, assisted suicide or both and the 72% of practicing Catholics who support this idea. “This consensus makes it possible to measure the gap between what the French expect and what the current law allows. It is difficult to see how the legislator could not take this into account in order to move”concludes Frédéric Dabi.
Although he does not refute, in principle, the use of the poll as a tool for measuring opinion, Doctor Vincent Morel, head of department at the University Hospital of Rennes and president of the scientific council of the French Society for Support and palliative care (Sfap) invites you to learn how to decipher them “to understand what is at stake in the complex responses of our fellow citizens”he pleads.
The main bias is undoubtedly due to the wording of the questions asked. These bring into play words – incurable disease, unbearable suffering – which refer, in healthy people, to a dramatic representation of the end of life that is not always adjusted to the realities experienced by patients and healthcare teams. “In palliative care services, only 5 to 6% of people can express, at one time, the wish to die, but one in ten persists in their request for euthanasia”notes Dr. Morel.
Exit binary response
Another limit of the polls: if the French agree on the main principle of an evolution of the law, the consensus seems less clear when one approaches the detail of the possible devices. “Who will be entitled to medical assistance in dying? In what conditions ? What will be the role of doctors? So many questions to which opinion polls do not provide clear answers. Hence the interest of the Citizens’ Convention and of a public and media debate that does not remain obsessed with the binary yes/no answer”continues Vincent Morel.
The type of reservations that has the gift of annoying Jonathan Denis, president of the ADMD. “Each time a poll comes out that shows that our fight for a change in the law is supported by a majority of French people, we are given the same arguments: the French would be at worst idiots, at best ignorant, whereas they have been expressing for years their free and enlightened adherence to the right to be able to choose one’s death. It is an intolerable way of refusing to settle a question that has already been debated a hundred times.he gets carried away.
Nevertheless, Jonathan Denis says he is ready to play the game of a new Convention on the subject. “Provided you listen to his conclusionshe warns. If she says, we don’t move, we will comply with this opinion without giving up our fight. But if she decides that assisted dying should be legalized, then the executive will have to comply. »