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[grupo] 12/3/2024 10:30

France could legalise assisted dying under strict conditions with new 'aid in dying' law


French president Emmanuel Macron has announced new legislation to legalise "aid in dying".


By Euronews and AP


Published on 11/03/2024 - 19:27•Updated 12/03/2024 - 09:16


Emmanuel Macron has announced new legislation to legalise "aid in dying" that will allow adults facing end-of-life illness to take lethal medication.

French president Emmanuel Macron has announced new legislation to legalise "aid in dying" that will allow adults facing end-of-life illness to take lethal medication, a first in the country.

The move follows last year’s report indicating that most French citizens support legalising end-of-life options.

In an interview published Monday by French newspapers La Croix and Liberation, Macron said the new bill will be restricted to adults suffering from an incurable illness who are expected to die in the “short or middle-term” and who are suffering "intractable" physical or psychological pain.


Macron said the law will offer "a possible path, in a determined situation, with precise criteria, where the medical decision is playing its role".

He gave the example of of people with terminal cancer, some of whom until now have gone abroad to end their lives.

Only people aged 18 or above who are capable of forming their own views will be allowed to get in the process, meaning those with severe psychiatric conditions and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease won’t be eligible, Macron specified.

Patients who seek to enter the process will need to reconfirm their choice after 48 hours and they should then receive an answer from a medical team within two weeks maximum, Macron said. A doctor will then deliver a prescription, valid for three months, for the lethal medication.

France launches national debate on legalising euthanasia

Avoiding terms like euthanasia

People will be able to take the medication at home, at a nursing home, or a healthcare facility, Macron said.

If their physical condition doesn’t allow them to do it alone, they will be allowed to get help from someone of their choice or by a doctor or a nurse.

Macron said the new bill will refer to "aid in dying… because it’s simple and humane," rather than terms like euthanasia or medically assisted suicide.

Medically assisted suicide involves patients taking, of their own free will, a lethal drink or medication that has been prescribed by a doctor to those who meet certain criteria.

Euthanasia involves doctors or other health practitioners giving patients who meet certain criteria a lethal injection at their own request.

Has Belgium become a haven for people wanting to end their life?

Macron set no date for the legislation to be applied, saying it will first need to follow a monthslong legislative process that will start in May.

A 2016 French law provides that doctors can keep terminally ill patients sedated before death but stops short of allowing assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Some French patients travel to other European countries to seek further options.

Assisted suicide is allowed in neighbouring Switzerland as well as in Portugal.

Euthanasia is currently legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Spain under certain conditions.

[waldron] 28/4/2023 13:47

Assisted dying should be legal, concludes French PM’s citizen debate


184 members of the public were tasked to look into end-of-life care in France by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne

28 April 2023 09:00

A citizens’ convention made suggestions on pain management, dignity and patient choice


By Samantha David
CONNEXION

Current end-of-life care is inadequate and active help to die should be legalised, a citizens’ convention considering the issue of euthanasia and assisted dying has concluded.

Since last December, the convention – made up of 184 members of the public chosen at random to reflect the demographics of the population – have spent 27 days debating, and nine days working on Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne’s question:

Are end-of-life services adapted to different situations or should changes be introduced?

[waldron] 07/4/2023 06:13

Prosecutors target Swiss euthanasia doctor again


The former vice-president of Swiss euthanasia organisation Exit faces yet another potential court appearance to answer for providing lethal drugs to a woman.


This content was published on April 6, 2023

1 minutes
swissinfo.ch/mga

Geneva prosecutors will ask the appeals court to rule once again on the case of Pierre Beck following a string of other hearings.

+ Why a Japanese man came to Switzerland to die

Beck helped the healthy 86-year-old woman die alongside her ill husband in 2017 by providing a lethal dose of a sedative and preanesthetic pentobarbital.

The retired doctor was originally found guilty of breaking the Swiss Narcotics Act, but two subsequent court hearings cleared his name.

“The mere fact of a physician prescribing pentobarbital to a person in good health, capable of discernment and wishing to die, does not constitute behavior punishable by the law on narcotics,” read the court last court verdict issued in February.

But The Genevan public prosecutor’s office on Thursday said it has asked the Federal Supreme Court to take another look at the case.

[waldron] 02/4/2023 21:07

French citizens' convention supports active assistance in dying using different models

The 184 randomly selected members of the French citizens' convention on assisted dying believe that the current legal framework must evolve. They put 81 proposals on the table, which include assisted suicide and euthanasia.

By Béatrice Jérôme
Published today at 4:24 pm (Paris)



It was the big question that nagged at them to the end: Will their report be read by their "fellow citizens"? This was the primary ambition of the 184 members of the citizens' convention on assisted dying, who published a document of more than 150 pages and 146 proposals on Sunday, April 2. It was adopted after a vote at 92 % (162 votes for, out of 176 voters) in the Palais d'Iéna chamber, at the end of their last working session at the headquarters of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (EESC). The report is intended to present "a wide spectrum of opinions" and does not claim to provide a univocal vision. They will present their findings to French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday.



Macron wanted this citizens' convention to provide the linchpin for a "national debate on assisted dying" that he had launched in September 2022. It was set with the task of answering a question posed by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne: "Is the framework of end-of-life accompaniment adapted to the different situations encountered or should possible changes be introduced?"

[adrian j boris] 22/2/2023 08:59

What is the difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide?

Assisted dying can take two forms: euthanasia or assisted suicide.

Broadly, euthanasia describes the situation where the person who is asking for assistance to die has someone else take the action that leads to their unnatural death (like injecting a lethal drug),

and assisted suicide is when the person is prescribed drugs that they must take themselves in order to die.

More technically, euthanasia is when the attending medical or nurse practitioner, takes an action with the singular intention of causing a patient’s death.

Generally, this is in the form of a lethal injection.

Assisted suicide is when a suicide is intentionally aided by the attending medical or nurse practitioner and the person self-administers the medication.

That is, the medical practitioner will prescribe a lethal drug which the patient will usually take orally.

However, it is important to note that “both practices are distinct from the withdrawal or withholding of life-sustaining treatment in accord with accepted ethical and medical standards”.

Also, “Do Not Resuscitate” orders are already legal in New Zealand and not included in this Bill.


What would the End of Life Choice Act make legal?

The End of Life Choice Act 2019 legalises both euthanasia (someone else injecting or otherwise delivering a lethal drug) and assisted suicide (taking the lethal dose yourself).

[adrian j boris] 22/2/2023 08:37

French citizens’ council votes for assisted dying (with conditions)


It comes after France’s ethics advisory body earlier said that patients are increasingly ‘forgottenR17; in end-of-life care

21 February 2023 15:16

The majority of citizens taking part in the convention said they were in favour of changing the laws on assisted suicide as the current legal position is not adequate


By Hannah Thompson
CONNEXION

A council made up of French citizens, launched on the initiative of President Emmanuel Macron to debate the question of ‘end of life’ rights, has voted strongly in favour of allowing assisted dying for people at the end of their life.

The 180-member Conseil économique social et environnemental (CESE) met for six weekends to debate and vote on certain key aspects of current law. The government has pledged to strongly consider their proposals.

A total of 84% said that the current law (dubbed the loi Claeys-Leonetti) “does not respond to all of the situations encountered”, and that “we must open up help to die”. Almost three quarters (72%) said that they are in favour of assisted suicide, compared to 65.7% who were in favour of euthanasia.

[ariane] 15/9/2022 11:49

Macron bets on public opinion to change law on assisted dying

By announcing the launch of a six-month public consultation, the President has laid the foundations for what he hopes will be the major social reform of his second term.

By Béatrice Jérôme and Mattea Battaglia
Published on September 15, 2022 at 11h13

Time to 3 min.



Franco-Swiss filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard ended his life in Switzerland on Tuesday, September 13, at the age of 91, by assisted suicide. On Monday, driven by "the conviction that we need to act," President Emmanual Macron confirmed the launch of a public consultation – a "citizens' convention" – on assisted dying.


Read more Jean-Luc Godard died by assisted suicide, legal adviser confirms

On Tuesday, the national consultative ethics committee (CCNE) set out the "strict conditions" that must "guide legislators' thinking" in the event of changes to the existing law (which dates to 2016) that would constitute a move towards the right to assisted suicide or euthanasia.
Read more Assisted dying: What French law does and doesn't allow

Mr. Macron is walking a tightrope to achieve what he believes could be the major social reform of his second five-year term. He needs to drum up support for what he is proposing – and for that, he needs to avoid giving the impression that he has the script already written in his head. "Collective discussion on this sensitive subject" is the only way, the Elysée Palace insisted. "The necessary time will be taken and all guarantees given to ensure the conditions for an orderly, calm and informed debate."

In accordance with his campaign commitment, Mr. Macron has entrusted the steering of this public debate to the economic, social and environmental council (CESE). It will assemble "a panel of citizens representative of the diversity of French society," for which it said the drawing of lots will begin in early October, with the consultation planned to last until March.

"When the citizens' convention was announced, I feared that it would be an 'alibi convention' to postpone this reform," Olivier Falorni, an independent MP, told Le Monde. Mr. Falorni is behind a proposed bill on the subject. "But after having discussed it again with Emmanuel Macron, I am reassured. A citizens' convention over a limited time – six months – to allow Parliament to legislate within a reasonable time: these are formal commitments that count."
'The planets are aligned'

Mr. Macron also wants to enlist Parliament from the start of the process, to counter accusations that he wants to bypass it. In parallel with the citizens' convention, "the government will engage in concerted cross-party work with MPs and senators," said the Elysée Palace. Le Monde understands that the social affairs committee of the Assemblée Nationale is preparing to launch an evaluation of the 2016 law. Meanwhile, the Court of Auditors has been asked by the same commission to submit a report on palliative care in France later this year.



"Things are going to happen. The planets are aligned," said Jean-Luc Romero-Michel, honorary president of the Association for the Right to Die with Dignity. "The President of the Republic has a favorable political situation available to him. The vast majority of parliamentarians are in favor of a law on the subject. The whole of the left, even the PCF [French Communist Party], is for it. The far right is still against, but that may be a good thing," said this long-time activist for the legalization of euthanasia.

It is on the right that opponents are most vocal. Bruno Retailleau, president of the Les Républicains group in the Sénat, called the citizens' convention on the end of life "completely bogus." Jean Leonetti, mayor of Antibes and co-author of the 2016 law, said: "Instead of supporting people at the end of their lives so they do not suffer, and providing the resources to do so, Emmanuel Macron says that we can kill someone who asks for it when they are at the end of their lives. It does not go beyond the current law, it is another thing entirely."

To answer his detractors, Mr. Macron can invoke the opinion of the CCNE, which says: "There is a way for an ethical application of assisted dying" – an opinion which "constitutes a solid basis for discussion of the subject," according to the Elysée Palace.


'The law is never perfect'

But the path laid out by Mr. Macron does have two major pitfalls. The first will present itself when it comes to incorporating the major principles set out by the CCNE and the ideas that emerge from the debates into the law. The CCNE believes the right to assisted dying should only concern very specific situations. How can exceptions be defined without being considered arbitrary? How can we evaluate the short, medium or long term? "The law is never perfect," said Professor Jean-François Delfraissy, president of the CCNE. "From the moment we embark on a legislative process, we are bound to see it evolve constantly, so we will take it step by step."

This is precisely what worries those healthcare professionals who are hostile to legalization, which includes most of those who practise palliative care. For SFAP, the body representing palliative care workers, the the CCNE "proposes a new paradigm in which, in certain situations, collective ethics could give way to individual demand." SFAP fears that by authorizing assisted suicide or euthanasia even in only a few cases, France is initiating a process which could lead to the generalization of these practices.
More on this topic Subscribers only 'With active assistance in dying, the act of violence is shifted onto health professionals'


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The second potential pitfall is that the CCNE's call to improve access to palliative care is likely to remain wishful thinking due to the financial cost to the social security system – and the lack of attractiveness for professionals of this medical specialty, which is also not widely taught. Unless, that is, the planned citizens' convention raises awareness by focusing on the expectations of the French people of better support in the final days, weeks or months of their lives, rather than asking for the right to the assisted shortening of those lives.



Béatrice Jérôme and Mattea Battaglia

Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.

[florenceorbis] 14/9/2022 06:43

France to hold national debate on legalising euthanasia

Issued on: 13/09/2022 - 16:21

Text by:
NEWS WIRES


French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday announced a national debate meant to broaden end-of-life options that will include exploring the possibility of legalizing assisted suicide, with the aim of implementing changes next year.
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The current 2016 law in France provides that doctors can keep terminally ill patients sedated until death comes but stops short of legalizing assisted suicide.

Macron said in a written statement that a body composed of citizens will work on the issue in the coming months in coordination with health care workers, while local debates are to be organized in French regions. The government will in parallel hold discussions with lawmakers from all political parties in order to find the broadest consensus.

Macron during his campaign for reelection earlier this year had promised to open the debate, suggesting he was personally in favor of legalizing physician assisted suicide.

Some French patients are currently traveling to other European countries to seek further options.


Euthanasia is currently legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain under certain conditions. In Switzerland, assisted suicide where the patient takes a lethal dose of drugs themself is allowed.

French polls in recent years steadily show a broad majority of people are in favor of legalizing euthanasia.

The current law allows patients to request “deep, continuous sedation altering consciousness until death” but only when their condition is likely to lead to a quick death. Doctors are allowed to stop life-sustaining treatments, including artificial hydration and nutrition. Sedation and painkillers are allowed “even if they may shorten the person’s life.”

(AP)

[waldron] 09/4/2022 11:15

LIVING WILL SWITZERLAND

[grupo guitarlumber] 24/3/2022 12:37

Funeral firm collapses leaving fears over payments

By Kevin Peachey
Personal finance correspondent, BBC News

Published

15 minutes ago


A funeral plan provider with 45,000 customers in the UK has collapsed, throwing contracts into doubt and raising concern over refunds.

Safe Hands had already signalled its intention to stop operating, but its collapse means pre-bought funerals may not be honoured.

Administrators said the company could not provide immediate refunds, leaving many worried their money will be lost.

The sector is facing an imminent overhaul, leaving other plans in doubt.

From 29 July, any provider must be authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which, from that point onwards, will give consumers far greater protection than they have at the moment.


'What are we going to do?'

Safe Hands was one of dozens of companies operating in the currently unregulated pre-paid funeral sector.

Customers such as Lyn Burrow, 72, and her husband Fred, 80, signed up to contracts that saved their family the expense and emotional cost of organising their funerals when they die.

The couple spent a total of £6,310 on their plan, which she said had given them "peace of mind".

She spoke to BBC Radio 4's Money Box programme about her concerns when it emerged that Safe Hands had decided to stop operating when new regulations begin.

Now, following news that the company is in administration, those fears have heightened.

She said: "My family was supposed not to have to worry, but what are we going to do now?"

"If we could at least recover some of the money, we could make up the difference with a reputable company. But £6,000 is a lot of money. It would have to come from our savings."



Joint administrator Nedim Ailyan, partner at FRP, said they would carry out a detailed investigation to discover what could be returned to creditors, including policyholders - whose funds are in a trust fund, which itself has a shortfall compared to what is required for full refunds.

"Regrettably, the administration means the company is not in a position to issue refunds at this time. We appreciate how upsetting this period of uncertainty will be for Safe Hands Plans' customers and their families," he said.

"Unfortunately, there is a shortfall between the level of plan holder investments and the forecast level of funeral plan costs to be paid. Essentially, the value of the investments is not enough to meet the funeral plan obligations of the company."

Any funeral plans activated in the next two weeks, because the policyholder has died, will be covered by another provider - Dignity. Mr Ailyan said a "longer-term solution" was being sought beyond that deadline, and customers - or their loved ones - would be contacted. A helpline has been set up on 0800 640 9928.


The FCA said it was reforming the sector because elderly, and very often vulnerable, customers have been subjected to unfair practices such as high pressure sales tactics and cold calls. It wants to raise standards by regulating what companies can and cannot do.

However, a FCA spokeswoman said that, in the case of Safe Hands, its powers were limited because it had yet to come under the regulator's jurisdiction.

"People who bought a pre-paid funeral plan with Safe Hands will be understandably concerned, which is why we welcome Dignity stepping in to provide funerals for the next two weeks," she said.

"We will continue to support the administrators and industry to see whether there is a longer-term solution for Safe Hands' customers."

UK funeral plan sector

1.6 million customers

200,000 funeral plans taken out every year

Approximately 65 companies

Average plan costs £4,000

Average plan lasts for 8 years

Source: FCA/Fairer Finance



As the funeral plan market is being reformed, industry insiders are worried that this could mean more of the 65 providers will go out of business, leaving tens of thousands of customers out of pocket.

Whilst many of the larger, more reputable firms are expected to be granted authorisation by the FCA, others are unlikely to even apply for authorisation or will be turned down. If that happens they will be unable or not allowed to operate beyond 29 July.

While customers who have signed up to plans very recently can cancel during a cooling-off period, others will have to wait to see what happens to their provider and their plan.