SFrance, after having entered, is increasingly oriented towards protecting everyone’s positions the right to abortion in its Constitution, will now have a law that “will allow you to ask for help in dying”. And so after months of reflection and a series of postponements, on March 10 President Emmanuel Macron presented his bill on the end of life which will allow some patients, who find themselves in “strictly regulated conditions”, to end their suffering by receiving a “lethal substance”.
End of life, France runs
In this case it will be “help” to die, an act of solidarity towards people at the end of life. In an interview published in La Croix and Libération, Macron stated that «the measure is necessary because there are cases that cannot be humanly accepted». Having said that, the parliamentary process of the bill promises to be long and should not be completed before 2025.
Many citizens in favor, but a divisive issue
According to some polls, the majority of French people are in favor of end-of-life regulations to the legalization of some form of assisted dying, but the topic remains highly divisive. At the moment the only law on the matter dates back to 2016: it introduced the possibility of deep sedation until death in cases of terminal illnesses. «Death is part of life. Everyone must have the right to die with dignity – said Macron – This dignity begins with better access to supportive care throughout our territory and this will be done. Sometimes, however, this is not enough, because life is no longer really life. The text we propose therefore provides assistance in dyinggoverned by rigorous conditions, precise criteria and a final decision that rests with the medical team.”
Protests for the right to euthanasia together with the Coscioni Association (Photo by Simona Granati – Corbis/Getty Images)
Who will be able to request help in dying
The “strict conditions” specified by the law are that they will be able to only adults in full possession of their mental faculties should resort to assisted death who are suffering “from incurable pathologies with poor prognosis in the short or medium term” and who suffer “suffering that is refractory to any relief”. While minors and patients suffering from psychiatric or neurodegenerative diseases that compromise the ability to discern, such as Alzheimer’s, will be excluded.
The process towards the end of life
After the patient has submitted the request to a medical team, the response must be received within a maximum of fifteen days. In case of a favorable outcomethe prescription of the lethal product which patients will be able to take alone or with the assistance of a doctor or a volunteer, will last three months during which the patient can obviously withdraw at any time. In the case of an unfavorable opinion, the patient will be able to turn to another medical team or resort. Naturally, the Pro Vita associations, that of objecting health workers and the Church of France have harshly criticized the bill, invoking a project “that goes against the values of care”.
The law that doesn’t exist in Italy
In Italy the situation regarding a law on the end of life, but also with respect to the right to abortion, is not even close to France. Here the two topics are not looked upon favorably by the current Government, which seems to want to go back rather than move forward on these topics which are in any case very important to the population. And, in fact, assisted suicide is legal not thanks to an Act of Parliamentwhich has never been approved, but is thanks to a historic ruling of the Constitutional Court in 2019, which arrived after years of initiatives, which however, not being a law, cannot define times and methods of implementation, but entrusts from time to time the management of everything by the individual local health authorities, not without major problems.
The Regions move forward alone
There is a proposal pending in the Senate, but it is considered by many to be very inadequate and, in this regulatory vacuum, therefore, each Region makes do as it can. There are currently a total of 10 Italian regions in which a legislative proposal has been filed to regulate assisted dying. In Veneto and Abruzzo it has not been approved, in Puglia, the regional council has adopted a resolution with the instructions to follow, but there is still no law. In Valle d’Aosta, Lombardy, Tuscany and Umbria, collections to file the bill are still underway.
And time passes
In the midst of papers, requests, sentences and a lot of bureaucracy, there are patients who are forced, despite very often being terminally ill, to appeal to the courts to get a response from the local health authorities who, in the absence of precise rules, do not know how to behave. The times, however, have not accelerated given the situation, but are biblical as always. But the suffering of the person also becomes biblical who between yes and many no, slowly moves towards an end of life full of pain.
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