France’s National Assembly gave final approval Wednesday to a bill allowing adults with incurable illnesses to receive lethal medication, the culmination of years of debate over end-of-life care.The lower house of parliament approved the measure in a 291-241 vote, after backing it in three previous readings, completing parliament’s work on the legislation announced by French President Emmanuel Macron more than three years ago.According to various estimates, assisted dying is available to around 300 million people worldwide, with euthanasia legal under certain conditions in some countries and assisted suicide allowed in others and in several U.S. states. France has an increasingly aging population, with growing numbers of patients in the country who require care for chronic illnesses.
France, a traditionally Catholic nation, has grappled with legal, medical, moral and religious questions about end-of-life options, including existing legislation that allows doctors to keep terminally ill patients sedated before death, but stops short of allowing assisted suicide and euthanasia.Many French people have traveled to neighboring countries where medically assisted suicide or euthanasia are legal. Medically assisted suicide generally involves a patient voluntarily taking lethal medication prescribed by a doctor. Euthanasia involves a doctor or other health care professional administering a lethal injection at the patient’s request.End-of-life options are also being debated in the United Kingdom. A bill to legalize assisted dying in England and Wales will formally return to Parliament on Sept. 11, five months after it ran out of time in Parliament’s last session.OPINION: THERE IS NOTHING AMERICAN ABOUT ASSISTED SUICIDEThe bill sets strict conditions
