On euthanasia, "there is a real lack of political courage"

• The end of life and the issue of legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide were not central to this election campaign.

• Emmanuel Macron announced that he would put in place a "citizen convention" in the event of re-election.

  The left is in favor of going as far as assisted suicide, while the right and the far right talk little about the subject, except to defend the Claeys-Leonetti law and the status quo.

• 20 Minutes

  returns to the issues of the debate with the new president of the Association for the right to die with dignity (ADMD), Jonathan Denis.

For many years, the question has divided politicians.

And the cleavage on the end of life grows with the approach of the presidential election.

If Anne Hidalgo and Jean-Luc Mélenchon propose, for example, to legalize active assistance in dying, Emmanuel Macron promises to resort, in the event of re-election, to a “citizen convention” on the end of life.

Valérie Pécresse and Eric Zemmour advocate better application of the current law.

If the subject was not at the heart of the campaign, an Ipsos poll carried out in February 2022 at the request of the Association for the right to die with dignity suggests that 94% of French people approve of the use of euthanasia and that 89% of them are in favor of authorizing assisted suicide.

To address these questions,

interviewed Jonathan Denis, the new ADMD president.

What did you expect from this campaign on the subject of the end of life?

At the Association for the Right to Die with Dignity, we want the end of life to become the societal subject of the next five-year term.

But we clearly saw that, like all subjects outside of immigration and identity, we had difficulty bringing out this theme during the campaign.

This results from a lack of knowledge on the subject…

Candidates like Valérie Pécresse (LR) refuse to go further in terms of end of life, believing that the Claeys-Leonetti law “is not known and applied”…

Today, active assistance in dying is prohibited in France.

The existing Claeys-Leonetti law offers the possibility in the short term of benefiting from what is called “deep and continuous sedation until death”.

But there lies all the hypocrisy of the law, because this deep sedation is not intended to cause death.

We stop feeding you and hydrating you, and then we wait for you to die, which can take a long time sometimes.

Let us recall the case of Vincent Lambert, who had benefited from sedation for 31 days before the court ordered that his treatments be resumed.

To stick to such a law is to ignore the suffering it causes for patients and their loved ones.

Added to this is the lack of clarity in the protocol of the Claeys-Leonetti law, denounced by many doctors, who are afraid of being accused of euthanasia by relatives.

So you have a law that is not applied at all today as it should be, as Valérie Pécresse points out.

But the solution is not to make it known, it has already existed for years.

Some of the right-wing candidates did not really speak out on the end-of-life issue, unlike the left, which was generally in favor of active assistance in dying.

How to explain that this divide still exists in 2022?

This is where the presidential election surprises me today.

I believe that there is a real lack of political courage on this subject.

Before, we said it was a medical issue, but it seems to me that it's more a citizen issue now.

The proof being that in April 2021, the deputy Olivier Falorni made a bill aimed at giving a right to "a free and chosen end of life", and there was no cleavage.

There were people from all the political groups who spoke in favor [the examination of the proposal could not, however, be completed in the Assembly].

And there in the context of the presidential election, we find an old divide.

This may be [an attempt by right-wing candidates] to please their constituents.

But they are wrong because the majority is in favor of changing the law.

The candidate of La France insoumise asks to include active assistance in dying in the Constitution.

Isn't this a purely political proposal?

If we add it to the Constitution, that means there will be a law, so that interests us.

In addition, Jean-Luc Mélenchon has been fighting for years for the active assistance in dying law to advance.

Knowing that a large majority of French people are in favor of assisted suicide, does Emmanuel Macron's proposal to establish "a citizens' convention" to "move forward in a peaceful way" seem like a good solution to you?

I really want him to do something under this five-year term, if he is re-elected, but why not have done it previously?

Above all, I think that Emmanuel Macron has no backbone on the issue.

He had said personally that he wanted to be able to choose.

It's good to be able to choose on a personal basis, but for that there has to be a law!

I find that Emmanuel Macron is not clear and it is certainly political cynicism, alas.

He speaks here of peaceful debate, but we cannot say that it did not take place in Parliament last spring [during the examination of Olivier Falorni's bill].

If he wants to make a "citizen convention", chick!

Let him do it, but quickly, because all the time lost by the last governments means that today, French people are going into exile.

It must be understood that dying with dignity tomorrow does not necessarily mean dying from euthanasia or assisted suicide.

It is being able to choose freely.

In his program, the EELV candidate Yannick Jadot proposes to "double the number of beds specialized in palliative care".

Is it really feasible?

It is above all a political will.

On palliative care, it is interesting to look at our European neighbours.

In Belgium, for example, the law on active assistance in dying was accompanied by two other laws: on patients' rights and on palliative care.

Austria also legalized assisted suicide and, at the same time, passed a law allowing universal access to palliative care.

If we look at the figures, Austria has invested 108 million euros in palliative care, for 9 million inhabitants.

It amounts to 12.5 euros per inhabitant for palliative care.

We, in France, are in our 5th plan on palliative care and we are investing 171 million euros for 68 million inhabitants, or 2.50 euros.

At one point, if we want universal access to palliative care, the EELV candidate is right to want to put money on the table.

But again, you have to go fast.

Currently, there are about twenty departments that do not have a palliative care unit and overseas departments that do not even have beds in these units.

Whether you are for or against active assistance in dying, everyone must agree on the investment to be made in these services.

World

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Health

Euthanasia: Ozon film, citizen consultation… End of life, an essential subject of the presidential campaign?

• Elections

• End of life

• Euthanasia

• Presidential election 2022

• Law

• Vincent Lambert

• Society

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