French Senate Rejects Assisted Suicide

The French Senate has said “Non” to legalizing assisted suicide. From the Le Monde story:

The Sénat, the French Parliament’s upper house, on Wednesday, January 28, rejected a government-backed draft law on assisted dying that had been billed as one of the country’s most important societal changes in more than a decade.

The law easily passed the lower Assemblée Nationale last year but was so watered down by right-wing and centrist lawmakers, in often angry and chaotic debate in the upper chamber, that supporters of the initiative said it no longer made sense.

So, what did the “watering down” actually change that assisted suicide advocates rejected? The Le Monde story didn’t say. But the Christian Daily International story did:

The Senate opted for Article 2, which states that everyone has the right to the “best possible relief from pain” but “without any voluntary intervention intended to cause death.”

So, the hastened death pushers would rather not pass a law that has the potential to dramatically improve access to pain control if hastened death is excluded. That tells me everything I need to know about the movement’s priorities.

The battle isn’t over yet. Apparently the bill will go back to the Assembly, which can pass it unilaterally. Let us hope the députés have greater regard for democratic comity than that, but I am not holding my breath.