The leaders of the main religions, received Thursday for dinner by Emmanuel Macron on the ultra-sensitive subject of the end of life, believe they have been "listened" by the president who, according to several participants, hopes to propose a "possible" rather than a "new right” on active assistance in dying.
The head of state, who has never hidden his doubts, above all listened to his interlocutors during this dinner of more than two hours, which also brought together doctors and other personalities;
he “did not go into detail” of the expected text, and pushed it back several times, and he remained “in a position of caution”, affirmed a participant to AFP.
From the president's reflection, however, it emerges that it is not moving "towards a new right, nor a new freedom, but a + possible + that the current law does not cover", assured the president of the Protestant Federation from France Christian Krieger.
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“We remain in the pursuit of a French path, taking into account micro-cases which are not concerned by the current law”, added the Chief Rabbi of France Haïm Korsia who believes that “we are not inventing no new gesture.”
“We remain in the + tu neras point +”, a “French paradigm which does not imitate the Belgian, Swiss or Oregon model”, where assisted suicide is authorized.
A few days ago, Lydie Imhoff, a 43-year-old blind woman suffering from hemiplegia, went to Belgium to be helped to die.
Without specifying the timetable, Emmanuel Macron, according to several participants, assured that he would send them a draft text and that they could raise their questions.
“Final arbitrations”, according to the presidency, are expected in February.
After the citizens' convention on the end of life, the majority in favor of active assistance in dying, and before the Academy of Medicine also said it was in favor of this right, Emmanuel Macron asked his ministers for a bill "before the end of life". of summer" 2023. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal assured on January 30 that the bill on active assistance in dying would be examined "before the summer" of 2024, while promising to "considerably" strengthen the units of palliative care.
The Bishop of Nanterre Matthieu Rougé, who represented the Catholic Church, welcomed the “quality of the dialogue”.
However, he warned: “it would not be acceptable if, on such a sensitive subject, the debate took place in the depths of summer.”