"The debate on active assistance in dying is still open. A law in this direction would profoundly change our society and our relationship to death," said the minister, who spoke for the first time on the subject in Le Monde.
"If society were to move in the direction of active assistance in dying, it could only be in very specific cases and which should be rigorously supervised," he said while Emmanuel Macron announced a bill on the end of life "by the end of the summer".
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).
According to Mr. Braun, even if the law is amended, "we will never respond to all situations". It is "each time the end of +a+ life and each situation is different".
"Whatever option we put on the table, priority will have to be given to strengthening what already exists. By greater ownership of advance directives, by better trained health professionals, by better use of deep and continuous sedation until death: these are tools that we will strengthen by supporting palliative care," he promises.
Current legislation allows caregivers to irreversibly sedate patients close to death, whose suffering is intolerable © Pascal POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP/Archives
The minister says he is "convinced that if we succeed, there will be much fewer requests for assistance in dying".
If the legislation were to evolve towards active assistance in dying, then François Braun "does not want it to be imposed as an obligation on doctors" and "does not believe that it must necessarily be done in a medical environment".
© 2023 AFP