Debates on assisted dying in the National Assembly: what the High Authority for Health is proposing

Who will be eligible for assisted dying ? The French National Authority for Health (HAS), which was approached by the Ministry of Health, acknowledged on Tuesday that it was impossible to answer this question scientifically.

The bill, which will be examined next Monday in the National Assembly, creates a right to assisted dying for terminally ill or advanced patients. However, it is impossible to scientifically define who is in the "advanced stage" of an incurable disease, according to the HAS.

"A doctor is not a fortune teller. Asking a doctor to predict how long a patient has left to live beyond a few hours or days is impossible," explains Olivier Falorni, rapporteur for the proposed law.

The High Authority for Health instead proposes a criterion for the quality of life left to live. But Health Minister Yannick Neuder adds that we must be very cautious and "not consider a societal leap forward when we have not yet developed palliative care everywhere in France." As a reminder, this sensitive issue has been split into two bills: one on palliative care, the other on active assistance in dying.

The MPs approved the bill in committee on Friday, after respectful but uncompromising debates on this sensitive subject, which stemmed from a bill requested by the Head of State but which could not be completed due to the dissolution of the Assembly in June.

Emmanuel Macron said on Monday, a week before the bill creating a "right to assisted dying" was due to be presented to the National Assembly, that the debate could not be reduced to a question of "for or against life," but rather of "the lesser evil."