Europe1 .fr with AFP/Photo credits: MAGALI COHEN / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 12:14 p.m., March 12, 2024

Questioned on France Inter, Catherine Vautrin, Minister of Labor, Health and Solidarity, responded to criticism from opponents of the government's assisted dying bill.

Assistance in dying will not depend on age but on a pathology, she notably specified.

The Minister of Labor, Health and Solidarity Catherine Vautrin worked on Tuesday to reassure people about assisted dying, insisting that it will be possible when it is a question of "a pathology, not an age" and that the patient's discernment will be crucial, as will the opinion of doctors.

Faced with criticism from opponents, such as the president of the Conference of Bishops of France, the minister declared on

France Inter

"very aware of the difficulty" on "an extremely heavy, extremely important text".

But "we need to hear from everyone", especially "those who have been waiting a long time" for a response to an "incurable" illness and "numbered days", she judged.

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Insisting on the “strict conditions” for assistance in dying, Catherine Vautrin repeated that “it is the patient, and he alone, who can request assistance in dying” and “it is not aging, it is 'is an incurable disease, with a medium-term vital prognosis (6-12 months), which will count.

What is planned in the project outlined on Sunday by Emmanuel Macron, “it is neither the right to euthanasia nor the right to suicide” stricto sensu, she argued.

“College medical opinion will also be key”

“If the patient is no longer able to show his discernment, to ask and to judge, that is not possible”, and “therefore no Alzheimer’s, it is excluded”, she reaffirmed, in particular in response to a listener.

And “advance directives are not enough,” she clarified.

The collegial medical opinion will also be key, recalled the minister.

“If there is disagreement from the medical team, assisted dying is not possible and the process stops at that point,” she said, adding that “if the patient wants to start again , (he may) ask for another opinion" later.

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Asked to say if she was totally in phase with the philosophy of Emmanuel Macron, she who, in 2004, as Secretary of State for the elderly in the Raffarin government had warned in particular against eugenic temptations in end-of-life situations. life, Catherine Vautrin replied that this was not the case with the bill.

And “who doesn’t evolve in their life? Fortunately, at the same time we move,” she slipped.