In France, they can authorize euthanasia – the practice of ending the life of an incurable patient suffering from unbearable pain. A bill to legalize suicide with medical assistance is being prepared by French President Emmanuel Macron, reports Izvestia.
A bill on palliative care, which will allow the euthanasia of terminally and seriously ill patients, will be prepared in France by the end of the summer. The head of state did not specify which standards would be included in the document. However, we know that politicians are gradually abandoning the word “euthanasia” in favor of the expression “death care” in order to focus on the issue of palliative care.
“I want us to draw up a ten-year national plan for the treatment of pain and the provision of palliative care with the necessary investments”, explained Emmanuel Macron, affirming that both those who want to leave and those who decide to fight for the life receiving help.
Physician-assisted suicide happens like this: the patient himself takes a lethal dose of medicine. Euthanasia involves the injection of a patient by doctors or other health workers. But the National Council of Physicians has already spoken out against the involvement of hospital staff in such procedures.
In any case, according to the President of France, in the new bill, free and informed consent to the procedure will be guaranteed. However, they do not plan to extend such a measure to children – unanimity on this issue has not been found.
In France, since 2005, the patient can refuse artificial resuscitation. Since 2016, a law has been in place allowing doctors to put a terminally ill patient suffering from severe pain in “deep and continuous sedation”. Doctors can also stop life-sustaining treatments – stopping artificial hydration and nutrition.
But active euthanasia and assisted suicide, in which the patient is given lethal doses of drugs, have so far been illegal procedures in France.
Earlier, the “regional head” wrote that German MP Kotret informed about the inability of French President Emmanuel Macron to end the conflict in Ukraine, according to The Eastern Herald.
