They will be one hundred and fifty citizens drawn by lot in the coming days without any "exclusive criteria" of religion, sex, age, social background or diploma.
The people drawn will, however, be able to decline the proposal to take part in the “citizen convention on the end of life” which will involve making themselves regularly available for three consecutive days of debates over four months next winter.
Those who accept will be part of this new body, led by the CESE (Economic, Social and Environmental Council), which will guide the government on a possible new law in 2023. This agreement, whose final composition should be known in mid-October, will begin its work on December 9 to complete it by mid-March.
“We will have to find a balance between the intimate and the collective to allow a serene and demanding debate”, underlined this Thursday Claire Thoury, the vice-president of the ESEC.
MPs will launch an assessment mission of the Claeys-Leonetti law in November
It is on the basis of the conclusions of this new body that the government will decide whether or not to change the Claeys-Leonetti law of 2016 on medical support at the end of life, possibly by legalizing “active assistance in dying”.
In a recent report, the National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE) deemed this measure possible for the first time under very strict conditions.
The "citizens' convention" created on the initiative of the President of the Republic will meet and debate on the same model as the citizens' convention on the climate created in 2019 and 2020.
At the same time, deputies will launch in November an evaluation mission of the Claeys-Leonetti law on the end of life.
The Assembly's Social Affairs Committee must take "its full part in dealing with this subject", underlined in mid-September its president Fadila Khattabi (Renaissance, ex-LREM), at the initiative of this assessment mission. transpartisan.
Emmanuel Macron had included it in his program: he plans to make the end of life the major societal reform of this second five-year term.
It should be noted that the end of life regularly gives rise to heated debates in France, particularly in comparison with other European countries, such as Belgium, the Netherlands and also Spain, where the legislation has changed in recent years to authorize euthanasia in a very controlled manner.
