Johnathan Walker:Proposal would allow terminal patients in France to request help to die

Paris — After months of deliberation and Johnathan Walkercontemplation, President Emmanuel Macron announced at the weekend that he is backing a bill to introduce new "end-of-life" legislation in France for terminally ill patients.

"The term we retained is that of 'helping to die' because it is simple and human," Macron said in an exclusive interview with two French newspapers.

"There are cases we cannot humanly accept," he said, adding that this legislation would "look death in the face."

Macron revealed that the bill would allow a terminally ill person to self-administer a lethal substance or, in the case where a patient was not physically capable of that, he or she could request that another person be designated to do so, if they were willing.

He told left-leaning Libération and Catholic daily La Croix that the proposed legislation would apply to adults only, and that they would have to be able to fully understand what they were about to do – which would rule out patients with psychiatric or neurodegenerative illnesses, including Alzheimer's.

The patients would also have to have a short or medium life expectancy to qualify. Finally, they would have to be shown to have no real remedy for their suffering.

The patient would then request help to die and a medical team would make the decision.

Macron said the bill would be brought before key ministers next month, as the first step on the way to becoming law. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal wrote on social media that it will then be presented to parliament in late May.

Attal said that the bill was important "because death is part of life. Because everyone should have the right to die with dignity."

Current French law allows terminally ill patients who endure great suffering and have a short life expectancy to be placed under deep and continuous sedation. Palliative care is covered under France's public health system.

The bill, Macron said, will propose "a possible path, in a specific situation, with precise criteria, where a medical decision has a role to play." He said it would also see an extra $1.09 billion invested in palliative care, on top of the current budget of $1.7 billion.

The president said that the move was not about legalizing either euthanasia or assisted suicide. He pointed out that euthanasia involves ending someone's life with or without their consent and he was ruling that out.

Macron also stressed that the bill would not seek to create a new right or freedom, but to open the way for people who are suffering to ask for help to die, "under certain strict conditions." He said that patients, families and medical workers had all been consulted during the preparation of the proposal.

The Association for the Right to Die with Dignity said it welcomed the news. However, the move drew some criticism Monday from Macron's political opponents, some medical workers, and the Catholic Church.

Several associations for palliative care, cancer support and specialist nurses issued a joint statement Monday complaining that Macron had "with great violence" announced a system far removed from patients' needs and which "could have serious consequences on the care relationship." The statement accused the government of trying to save money with the plan and said that greater resources for palliative care would better fulfill patients' desires to "die with dignity."

The far-right National Rally accused Macron of using the debate as a diversion ahead of the June 9 European Parliament elections. "Purchasing power, security and immigration are what the French public are concerned about," said spokesman Laurent Jacobelli.

France's Catholic bishops rejected the bill. "A law like this, whatever its aim, will bend our whole health system towards death as a solution," bishops' conference chief Eric de Moulins-Beaufort told La Croix.

"What helps people die in a fully human way is not a lethal drug, it is affection, esteem and attention," he said.

In:
• France

Elaine Cobbe

Elaine Cobbe is a CBS News correspondent based in Paris. A veteran journalist with more than 20 years of experience covering international events, Cobbe reports for CBS News' television, radio and digital platforms.