Listen.
Do not crease.
Consult before moving forward.
A new “thematic” dinner on the end of life is being organized this Thursday evening at the Élysée.
Emmanuel Macron receives religious authorities to once again address the highly sensitive subject of the announced law on active assistance in dying.
The text, postponed several times, should be revealed at the end of February and debated before June according to the latest news.
The dinner will notably bring together Monsignor Matthieu Rougé, Bishop of Nanterre and member of the Permanent Council of the Conference of Bishops of France, Haïm Korsia, the Chief Rabbi of France, Pastor Christian Krieger, President of the Protestant Federation of France and Antony Boussemart, co-president of the Buddhist Union of France.
The president will be accompanied by Catherine Vautrin, the Minister of Labor, Health and Solidarity, in charge of the file.
Alain Claeys, co-author of the previous end-of-life law and the president of the National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE), Jean-François Delfraissy will also be present.
“Ethical vertigo”
Around the table, two caregivers will deliver two visions of end-of-life support.
François Blot, resuscitation doctor at the Gustave-Roussy center until 2020 and today head of its ethics committee, will undoubtedly recount his evolution in favor of active assistance in dying for patients suffering from incurable illness with refractory suffering.
While a doctor responsible for a palliative care unit will be able to explain how his service supports patients until the last moments.
This meeting takes place a year after another dinner on the same theme, in March 2023. Emmanuel Macron then spoke of an
“ethical vertigo”.
Since then, his plans have become clearer.
In April, after the Citizens' Convention, he listed certain conditions for access to active assistance in dying: taking into account the
"analysis of discernment"
to guarantee a
"free and enlightened will"
, the
"reiteration"
of demand,
“incurability”
or
“refractory, psychological and physical suffering, or even the threat of vital prognosis”
.
This winter, an intermediate version of the future bill also leaked, suggesting a text which would legalize assisted suicide but also an exception for euthanasia.
New ten-year strategy on palliative care
The latest decisions of the President of the Republic, however, are not known.
Will he deliver them to his guests this evening?
Will he give more details on the limits of a law which promises to be an “anthropological rupture” feared by many caregivers?
Representatives of religions hope to receive guarantees on the development of palliative care.
The President of the Republic's words are all the more awaited as a misunderstanding marked his last meeting with religious leaders.
In January, during the traditional greeting ceremony, they heard the Head of State announce two separate texts on the end of life.
Information subsequently denied by the Élysée.
After the presentation of a new ten-year strategy on palliative care, the announcement of which is imminent, it is indeed a single text which should propose a “new French model” of end of life, the president's entourage announced.
It remains to be seen whether the Head of State will confirm this modus operandi to his guests.