French parliament have voted to allow some people in the last stages of a terminal illness the right to assisted dying.
With 305 deputies voting in favour and 199 against, the bill’s first reading has passed, paving the way for a long parliamentary process.
The vote comes after an emotional session, where MPs from various parties expressed their personal convictions on the sensitive issue.
The bill’s supporters argue that it would provide an “ethical response to the need to support the sick and the suffering”, while opponents, including many health workers and right-wing deputies, have raised concerns about the implications.
If passed, the law would allow medical teams to decide if patients are eligible for assisted dying, provided they meet strict conditions, including being over 18, holding French citizenship or residency, and suffering from a “serious and incurable, life-threatening, advanced or terminal illness”.
The motion, referred to in the counyry as a law on “end of life” or “aid in dying” was backed by most of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist MPs and their allies and by the left, with most right and far-right deputies voting against.
“The French people are ready for this, and we owe them this rendezvous with history,” said Stéphane Delautrette, a Socialist party MP during the session.
The laws, he added would be “the measure of this parliament, in the footsteps of major social advances” such as the right to abortion and the abolition of the death penalty.
However, Patrick Hetzel, a deputy from the centre-right Les Républicains, said it was “illusory to and even dangerous to even think of debating a legalisation of euthanasia without having first fully deployed proper access to palliative care.”
The prime minister, François Bayrou, a devout Catholic, had said he had “questions” and would abstain if he were an MP, but Macron said last year that France needed the legislation because “there are situations you cannot humanely accept”.
While the bill is being debated by citizens, right-to-die campaigners have welcomed the law, though describing it as relatively modest in scope.
“It’s a foot in the door, which will be important for what comes next,” said Stéphane Gemmani of the ADMD association.
“We’ve been waiting for this for decades. Hopefully France will steadily align itself with other European countries. Forcing people to go to Belgium or Switzerland, pay €10,000 or €15,000. The current situation is just wrong,” Gemmani added.
Opinion polls show most French people are in favour of assisted dying, but France has been slower than many European neighbours to legalise it. Others are actively debating the issue, including the UK, where an assisted dying bill is before parliament.
Active euthanasia, where a caregiver induces death at the request of the patient, and assisted dying, where doctors provide the patient with the means to end their life themselves, have been legal in the Netherlands and Belgium since 2002.
Both countries apply roughly similar conditions, a doctor and an independent expert must agree the patient is suffering unbearably and without hope of improvement – and have since extended the right to children under 12.
Luxembourg also decriminalised active euthanasia and assisted dying in 2009. Active euthanasia is outlawed in Switzerland, but assisted dying has been legal since the 1940s and organisations such as Exit and Dignitas have helped thousands of Swiss nationals, residents and others to end their lives.
Austria legalised assisted dying in 2022, while Spain adopted a law in 2021 allowing euthanasia and medically assisted dying for people with a serious and incurable illness, providing they are capable and conscious, the request was made in writing, reconfirmed later, and approved by an evaluation committee.
