The Head of State receives in the morning the 184 members of the Convention, citizens chosen by lot who participated for three months in intense debates on the subject.

In a report validated Sunday, they answered "yes" to three-quarters to "active assistance in dying", specifically assisted suicide or euthanasia, but accompanied their positions with important restrictions.

The President of the Republic will "draw the conclusions of this work and trace the paths of an Act II in this national debate," said Sunday the Elysee.

He could announce a new law, the way of the referendum is in principle not open for this type of societal issues, says the Elysee.

The current legislation, set by the Claeys-Leonetti law of 2016, allows caregivers to irreversibly sedate patients close to death, whose suffering is intolerable.

But it does not go so far as to authorize assisted suicide (the patient administers the lethal product himself) or euthanasia (a caregiver injects it).

The executive, which had been criticized for having largely neglected the conclusions of a previous climate convention, has already warned that it would not take up as such those on the end of life.

The members of the Convention "do not decide in place of the authorities who have the legitimacy to do so" but "their conclusions are important and they will be taken into consideration," says the Elysee.

Blocking topics

An advisory body, the Ethics Committee (CCNE), has already paved the way in September for an evolution by deeming it possible - under many conditions - to legalize this active assistance in dying.

According to the Convention, such an act requires that the patient has previously received in-depth support, and that he has been able to express his will at any time.

President of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (EESC) Thierry Beaudet, at the podium, at the end of the Citizens' Convention on the End of Life, at EESC headquarters, 2 April 2023 © JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

This raises the question of patients lacking discernment. On this subject, as on the opening of assistance in dying to minors, the Convention has not made any pronouncement.

"These are two very blocking subjects, there is not necessarily an interest in going further in this area," says the Elysee, seeming to want to put aside these two points.

Another subject on which the president could be asked to decide: the Convention calls for the development of palliative care, especially in nursing homes, with more mobile units across the territory.

If the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide brings the left and part of the center in agreement, it arouses strong reluctance on the right.

Marine Le Pen called Sunday on LCI for "means for palliative care", announcing that she would vote "against" a law promoting euthanasia.

Conversely, Jean-Luc Mélenchon spoke out on France 3 for this "additional freedom", asking for the organization of a referendum, "the most reasonable", according to him.

The risk is also to reactivate a source of tension in society, already shaken by the pension crisis.

In a poll published Sunday by the JDD - conducted among a thousand French - a majority (70%) say they are in favor of active assistance in dying. But only 36% consider euthanasia if they were suffering from a painful and incurable disease.

A nurse cares for a patient in the palliative care unit at Eugénie Hospital in Ajaccio, Corsica, April 23, 2020 © Pascal POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP/Archives

The president, who had initially seemed very willing to "move" on the end of life, is now looking for a middle way, said Christian Krieger, representative of the Protestants of France, after a dinner on the subject at the Elysee.

His personal position remains an unknown, as he has taken care in recent months not to say anything about his intentions.

© 2023 AFP