France set to back law allowing ‘sleep before death’
Print Edition
French lawmakers were yesterday expected to vote overwhelmingly in favor of a law that would allow medics to place terminally ill patients into a deep sleep until they die.
The law, which has reignited the divisive debate about euthanasia, would also make “living wills” — drafted by people who do not want to be kept alive artificially if they are too ill to decide — legally binding on doctors.
“Sleep before death to avoid suffering,” said MP Jean Leonetti, summing up the law he proposed.
Euthanasia is illegal in France but President Francois Hollande pledged in his 2012 presidential campaign to look into an issue that divides a country.
Polls show French people are overwhelmingly in favor (96 percent in a recent survey) of putting patients into a deep sleep if they are able to make the decision themselves. This drops only slightly (to 88 percent) if the medical team takes the decision because the patient is unable.
Eight out of 10 French people would even go further than the draft law and legalise euthanasia.
A 2005 French law already legalizes passive euthanasia, where treatment needed to maintain life is withheld or withdrawn. But the proposed law goes further, allowing doctors to couple this with “deep and continuous sedation” for terminally ill patients.
The debate on euthanasia regularly opposes those who say the sanctity of life must be respected at all costs and those who believe terminally ill patients in unbearable pain must be allowed to die with dignity.
Health Minister Marisol Touraine has been steadfast in her refusal to legalize euthanasia and an amendment to the law allowing “medical assistance to die” was rejected.
Several deputies have vowed to abstain in the vote, saying it does not go far enough.
Others are poised to abstain because they believe the draft law goes too far toward allowing euthanasia.
Nevertheless, the bill is expected to pass with a large majority.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
