"Is the end-of-life support framework adapted to the different situations encountered or should possible changes be introduced?" This question has animated the debates of 184 French people for three months.

Answer this Sunday, at noon. Participants will vote to endorse a report that will discuss the merits of legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide.

The aim is to guide the action of the government, which requested in the autumn the holding of this convention in a context of resumption of debates on the end of life, at the initiative of President Emmanuel Macron.

The head of state has long considered amending the current legislation, set by the Claeys-Léonetti law of 2016. This allows caregivers to irreversibly sedate patients close to death, whose case is desperate and whose suffering is intolerable.

But it does not go so far as to authorize "active assistance in dying", i.e. assisted suicide or an act of euthanasia.

An advisory body, the Ethics Committee (CCNE), paved the way for such a development in September, deeming it possible - under many positions - to legalize this active assistance in dying.

It is in this context that citizens have, since the end of 2022, participated in several weekends of intense debates, after listening to speakers from all sides: religious, caregivers, associations...

Little echo

There is little doubt about the conclusions of the Convention: citizens have already voted, through intermediate votes, to legalise active assistance in dying, albeit as a last resort.

However, the modalities remain to be defined. Euthanasia? Assisted suicide? An articulation between the two? Some subjects, particularly sensitive, are still debated, such as openness to children. And citizens promised to leave a large part, in their conclusions, to the expression of minority positions against active assistance in dying.

These debates have, in any case, met with little media coverage, in a political context marked by controversies around the pension reform and the vast social movement it has provoked.

However, supporters and opponents of a change in the law have accelerated the maneuvers in recent weeks, chaining the tribunes in a tone that remained moderate.

The debates do not, in any case, focus on the quality of the work of the convention, observers welcoming constructive exchanges and without caricature.

The questions are rather focused on the fate of this work. What will the executive do with it, which, after being accused of having largely neglected the conclusions of a previous climate convention, has repeatedly warned that it would not take up as such those on the end of life?

In the end, it is Emmanuel Macron who will decide. And his position is a great unknown: the president, who received several personalities - religious, doctors, intellectuals - for dinner at the beginning of March to discuss the subject, has been avoiding for months to advance publicly.

Neither the head of state nor his Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne will be present on Sunday. But Mr. Macron will receive the members of the citizens' convention on Monday and "will tell them what follow-up he intends to reserve to their major work", said the Elysee to AFP, while recalling that this was part of "a broader consultation".

© 2023 AFP