PARIS: France moved closer on Wednesday to joining the ranks of countries that guarantee the right to assisted dying, a move championed by President Emmanuel Macron.
The president had promised an assisted dying law when he was re-elected for a second term in 2022, in a change seen as one of the most important social reforms since France allowed same-sex marriage in 2012.
If the country’s highest constitutional authority approves the legislation, France will join the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada in legalising assisted dying.
“In 2022, I made a commitment to open this path with the French people,” Macron wrote on X.
“With seriousness, humility, and in full respect of our democracy, that commitment has been honoured.” Lawmakers applauded the bill’s author Olivier Falorni, a former lawmaker-turned-mayor present for the adoption, after what he has said were “14 years of parliamentary battles”.
