François Ozon's film
Everything went well
, which comes out this Wednesday, is inspired by Emmanuelle Bernheim's autobiographical story.
He follows the painful path of a family that accompanies a very diminished father in his choice of assisted suicide.
A new opportunity to sensitize public opinion, and perhaps politicians, on this intimate subject of the end of life.
After a bill blocked in the Assembly by a handful of deputies, some supporters of a law on assisted suicide hope that the text can come back before the end of the term of office. Otherwise he will certainly be one of the subjects of the electoral campaign.
“When I saw
Everything went well
, I thought of the films from before 1975 which explained the difficulties of French women who could not have an abortion in France. Let's stop postponing this law on assisted suicide! “, Annoys Olivier Falorni, deputy (Liberties and territories) of Charente-Maritime, which in April brought the proposed law on the end of free and chosen life. A text, proposed during a parliamentary niche, which could not be discussed and voted on before midnight, after a handful of deputies tabled 3,000 amendments. Since then, the forums have followed one another so that the text returns to the agenda… without success.
While François Ozon's film is coming out this Wednesday at the cinema, with André Dussolier and Sophie Marceau in the casting, the defenders of assisted suicide hope that it will be one more argument to legislate on this intimate question.
"And how do the poor do?
"
The film is inspired by a true story, that of Emmanuèle Bernheim, who recounted the last months of her father's life in her eponymous book.
After a stroke, his father, camped by André Dussolier, asks to die… It is therefore in Switzerland that he will be accompanied by his daughters.
"It is a French film, very well played, with actors and a director not favorable to this question at the beginning, and who realize during the shooting that the chosen end of life must be legalized, underlines Philippe Lohéac," general delegate of the Association for the Right to Die with Dignity (ADMD).
But it does not revive the debate, since the question has never left the news!
On September 7, the British film
Supernova
approached it, in March, Spain legalized euthanasia… This film is an additional stone.
"
An opinion shared by the deputy Olivier Falorni. “Not a week goes by without this question, unfortunately due to more or less publicized situations, coming back to the fore. It goes through the interventions of personalities, including Françoise Hardy, the son of Guy Bedos, Line Renaud ... Cultural creation and films help to show the reality of the end of life in France with its injustices, its situations of absolute cruelty , the obligation of exile, social inequity. At one point in the film, André Dussolier says: “And how are the poor doing? Sophie Marceau, who plays her daughter, replies: "they are dying slowly in France". And André Dussolier added: “Ah poor people! ". I think that this film will help to make even stronger the demand made by public opinion for a law. "
A citizens' convention on the end of life?
If the polls indeed show that the French want the law to change, the government has been cautious on this issue.
In 2017, the Macron candidate was careful not to promise anything.
But when asked about his personal case, he assured: “I want to choose my end of life.
»A little sentence that remains in the throat of pro-euthanasia.
But Olivier Falorni is convinced of this: it is still possible that his text, supported by 300 deputies from all sides, will be adopted before the end of this term. How? 'Or' What ? “If the text could not be voted, it is only because of the lack of time and not of a lack of support, since article 1, founder, was voted. The bill is suspended, but can be resumed at any time. It just needs to be put back on the agenda. If it is unlikely that the government suddenly changes its mind, Olivier Falorni hopes that the LREM deputies will be able to weigh in his favor. “Next December, LREM has a week to include it in its parliamentary initiative time. The deputies are adults and vaccinated, it is the case to say it! Despite the government's reluctance, 85% of them voted for article 1. ”
An overwhelming majority of favorable French people
In an interview with
Le Monde
on September 7, Gabriel Attal announced that the government was considering creating a Citizens' Convention on the end of life. An outstretched hand? "When I read his words, it reminded me of Georges Clemenceau's sentence:" When you want to bury a problem, you create a commission ", quips Olivier Falorni. It is a diversionary maneuver that is really not up to the stakes. "Instead of moving forward, the debate will stagnate," annoys Philippe Dohéac. We know that 89% of French people want the authorization of assisted suicide for people suffering from unbearable and incurable diseases. In April, MPs said they were overwhelmingly in favor. It was the first time. And in the Senate, rather conservative, we had 17 votes apart. "
In addition, there have already been 18 opinions and reports on the subject… including a Citizens' Convention in 2013, which concluded that there was a need to legislate on active assistance in dying.
The Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), also requested, made the same response in 2018. “We are asking the government to be passive, to let Parliament legislate, storm Philippe Lohéac.
No spending thousands of euros on yet another consultation!
".
An inescapable subject of the campaign?
If the government therefore avoids the subject, it should quickly win in the race for the Elysee.
Asked about France Inter on this possibility, the director François Ozon replied: “It's a subject that we are a little afraid of.
I hope people will talk about it, because there is a form of injustice to see how it goes today.
"
François Ozon: "There is still reluctance [around the question of assisted suicide], even if the French generally are for the end of life with dignity" # le79inter pic.twitter.com/LBmbvLhh9n
- France Inter (@franceinter) September 20, 2021
Emmanuel Macron, for the time being, remains very silent on the question.
We know that Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Anne Hidalgo are great defenders of assisted suicide.
The mayor of Paris has also mentioned the right to die with dignity as soon as she announces her candidacy.
The two finalist candidates of the Greens, Yannick Jadot and Sandrine Rousseau, are also in favor.
The other parties should be less enthusiastic… “If the text is not voted on, THE social issue of the presidential campaign, it will be active aid in dying,” says Philippe Lohéac.
Marriage for all is done, PMA for all too.
Films about the end of life are just a preamble.
"
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