"We need to ensure traceability from A to Z (...) For medico-legal reasons of course. But also to establish how many people have had access to this new right each year and under what conditions, "says the minister in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche.

The bill "will include three blocks: active aid in dying, palliative care and patients' rights," describes the minister in charge of territorial organization and health professions who does not decide on what would be the French model between active assistance in dying and euthanasia.

"It remains to be defined. What matters is that the supervised possibility of benefiting from active assistance in dying becomes effective, as demanded by 75% of our fellow citizens," says Ms. Firmin Le Bodo who is therefore the pilot of the reform in place of the Minister of Health François Braun.

After having gathered for several months of French people drawn by lot, the Citizens' Convention which voted by a majority to open an "active aid in dying", but under important conditions, President Emmanuel Macron announced that he wanted a new law on the end of life "by the end of the summer".

This will be "co-constructed with parliamentarians," promises the government.

In her interview with the JDD, Ms. Firmin Le Bodo recalls the "red lines" set by Mr. Macron: "Minors will be excluded; the patient's vital prognosis should be engaged in the medium term; his will collected several times; his discernment intact".

The notion of the medium term is "at the heart of the work in progress", she adds.

Ms. Firmin Le Bodo excludes that patients suffering from mental illnesses can have access to it.

"Rather than freezing a list of diseases opening access to active assistance in dying, we should rather qualify the impact of the pathologies concerned," says the minister.

However, it sees two "safeguards": "Doctors and caregivers who do not wish to participate in active assistance in dying will have to be able to use a conscience clause from the first stage of the process, when they have to decide on a vital prognosis committed in the medium term. Then, it will be necessary to ensure that the patient has been offered palliative care, "explains the minister.

Finally, on the aspect of palliative care, on which the Citizens' Convention particularly insisted, the government plans "a ten-year plan" that will enter into force in 2024.

Ms. Firmin Le Bodo details a host of objectives including the creation of palliative care units in the 20 departments that do not have them "by the end of 2024", the creation of a dedicated "medical network" and from 2024, a pediatric palliative care unit at the national level.

© 2023 AFP