Cases involving psychological suffering alone were excluded from the French bill. For patient requests that are deemed eligible, a lethal injection will either be self-administered by the patient or administered by a medical professional if the patient is unable to do so.
Health professionals will be allowed to refuse to administer the injection if they are morally opposed to the procedure but will be required to refer the patient to someone else who can provide the service.
In a statement released on Tuesday, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, a former conservative who is now allied with centrist President Emmanuel Macron, said he would refer the bill to France’s Constitutional Council for a legal review to ensure that “the law … can be enforced in full compliance with the principles guaranteed by our Constitution and, in particular, with human dignity.”
He also voiced concerns about the possibility of adults under legal guardianship receiving assistance in dying and said he wanted to ensure the measure complied with the constitutional “principles of personal freedom and human dignity.”
Critics argue that adults under legal guardianship — about 900,000 people in France whose personal or financial decisions are subject to legal supervision — should not be allowed to request assisted dying because they have already been deemed incapable of making certain decisions for themselves.
Once the constitutional review is complete, the bill — which Macron promised as part of his 2022 reelection campaign — should be formally enacted by the president.