A citizens’ council set up to consider the issue recently recommended new end-of-life legislation, but some members of France’s religious community oppose the moves to allow assisted suicide.
There are already options for people suffering from terminal illnesses, such as palliative care, deep and continuous sedation, and making the patient as comfortable as possible, according to the National Evangelical Council.
Its head Erwan Cloarec told CNA: “I believe that by authorising this possibility of euthanasia or helping someone to die, we are crossing the threshold of something forbidden, something dangerous, I think, for our way of living as a society, our way of living together.”
While coming to terms with one’s end of life is typically a personal or private family matter, it is now being questioned publicly in France, with the country debating whether to join its European neighbours with similar policies.
Euthanasia has been legal in Belgium and the Netherlands for more than 20 years, while Switzerland has allowed assisted suicide since 1942.
Source: CNA
