End of life: the Academy of Medicine for a right to assisted suicide

7/17/2023, 3:29:03 PM

Highlights: The European Union is set to introduce a new law on the right to die. The law will allow people to die with dignity. It will also allow them to die in peace, without fear of reprisals for their actions. The European Union will also introduce new rules on the use of the death penalty. The new law will apply to all EU countries, not just those in the European Union. The EU will also be able to impose new rules in the future, if necessary, on countries that fail to comply with the law.

The National Academy of Medicine has ruled for a right "exceptionally" to assisted suicide, while ruling out the use of euthanasia, in a notice received Monday, while a bill on the end of life is being prepared.

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: GARO / PHANIE / PHANIE VIA AFP 17:24 pm, July 17, 2023

The National Academy of Medicine has pronounced itself in favor of a right "exceptionally" to assisted suicide, while ruling out the use of euthanasia, in an opinion received Monday, while a bill on the end of life is being prepared.

The government must unveil "by the end of the summer" its text to create an "active aid in dying", the first sketches of which are scrutinized both by advocates of legalizing assisted suicide, or even euthanasia, and by opponents.

The opinion of the National Academy of Medicine says it takes "into account the will of the legislator to modify the current framework of the law on the end of life". In this context, it agrees to adjust "in a framed way the current system by the opening of new rights to help to die as little harm as possible, by accepting on an exceptional basis assisted suicide, under imperative conditions". So far, the prospect of a new law crystallizes the opposition of caregivers who hammer that "giving death is not a care".

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Put in place strict safeguards

The Academy of Medicine insists on the need to put in place strict guarantees, if assisted suicide was recognized by the legislator, citing for example "a collegial evaluation occurring upstream of any decision" or "an authorization and prescription without administration of the lethal product by doctors and caregivers, which leads to an ultimate freedom of choice for the patient".

It also stresses that "recognition of assisted suicide makes it imperative to set up throughout the territory a palliative care offer corresponding to needs and accompanied by the necessary means".

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In addition, it wants to "rule out euthanasia", consisting of the administration by a third party of a lethal product to a person who requests it. The institution justifies this opinion by the "strong moral and symbolic significance" of the act but also because "professionals and members of end-of-life support associations oppose it and fear this practice".

"Euthanasia, unlike assisted suicide, transgresses the Hippocratic Oath 'I will never cause death', taken by any doctor," explains the institution.