Olivier Véran during the weekly Questions to the Government session on April 6, 2021, Palais Bourbon, National Assembly, in Paris.

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NICOLAS MESSYASZ / SIPA

They will not let go of this fight for a more peaceful end of life.

The Liberties and Territories opposition deputies, who on Thursday brought before the Assembly a bill authorizing euthanasia, on Friday asked "the majority and the government to resume and complete the debate on the end of life, before the end of the five-year term ”.

Despite broad support, the examination of the bill opening a right to "a free and chosen end of life" of the deputy Olivier Falorni could not be completed in the face of thousands of amendments and a time constraint, due to the end of trading at midnight.

The work did not go beyond Article 1, and risk remaining a dead letter if another political group or the government does not include it on its agenda.

For better enforcement of the current law?

"The debate deserves to take place, there is no doubt", but it "needs time" on a subject as "sensitive", said Thursday the Minister of Health Olivier Véran in front of the deputies.

However, he promised better application of the current French law, known as Claeys-Leonetti, adopted in 2016, which provides for deep and continuous sedation that can lead to death, but without active euthanasia.

"I believe that we will have to move forward on the subject of the end of life" but "such a subject must necessarily be part of a fundamental societal debate on support for the end of life, on active assistance to die and on the limits to be put there, also declared the boss of the deputies LREM Christophe Castaner.

A very short "niche"

The Liberties and Territories group had other texts inscribed in its "niche" (day whose agenda is reserved for it) which could not be discussed, on the fight against land and real estate speculation in Corsica, the fight against land and real estate speculation in Corsica. against international trafficking in human organs and again the legalization of cannabis.

In question, according to the group president Bertrand Pancher: “oversized ego quarrels” in particular.

“Is it normal that these subjects, like others, when they are brought up by parliamentarians, are dealt with hastily, within very tight deadlines?

Such a concentration of powers in the hands of the executive and the President of the Republic is not a sign of good democratic health, ”Judge Bertrand Pancher in a press release.

He suggests that each political group could "have a week instead of a day (at least depending on the size of the groups, editor's note), per year, to initiate the reforms requested by the French".

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  • Society

  • National Assembly

  • Euthanasia

  • End of life