France's lower house of parliament has voted to open the door to legalised assisted dying, delivering the National Assembly's fourth approval of the measure after a Wednesday session that ended 291 votes in favour to 241 against. The bill still needs to survive scrutiny from the country's Constitutional Council before it can take effect, but Wednesday's result marks the furthest the legislation has travelled in a debate that has dragged on for years and repeatedly stalled in the Senate, which has rejected the bill three times.
Who Would Qualify For Assisted Dying
Under the text approved by MPs, the right to assisted dying would be limited to French adults suffering from an illness described as "serious and incurable" that has reached "an advanced or terminal stage." It is not enough for the condition to be serious, lawmakers wrote strict qualifying language into the bill: the illness must also be leaving the patient in constant physical or psychological suffering that is either unbearable or that has stopped responding to treatment. That narrows the pool considerably from a general right to die, and it is meant to answer critics, some of whom have appeared at protests, who argue that any loosening of the rules risks framing sick or disabled people as, in their words, a "burden."
The Step By Step Process Patients Must Follow
Even for those who meet the criteria, the bill lays out a sequence of steps designed to slow the decision down and keep a doctor involved throughout. A patient would first need to "freely manifest his or her intention" to end their life to a doctor. That doctor would then have up to 15 days to consult before making a decision. If the request is approved, the patient must then wait a further two days, a built in reflection period, before the lethal substance can be administered. In the large majority of cases the law envisages the patient administering the substance themselves; only where a patient is physically unable to do so would a doctor or nurse be permitted to step in and do it on their behalf. Even then, the final decision to go ahead would still have to be checked and confirmed by the physician on the day itself, a safeguard intended to make sure the patient has not changed their mind.
Now It Must Clear France's Constitutional Council
Wednesday's vote does not put the law into effect. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is set to send parts of the bill to the Constitutional Council, a nine member body responsible for checking whether new legislation complies with the constitution, before it can be signed into law. Lecornu made his intention to do this clear on the eve of the vote. His office said that while the National Assembly had extensively debated the bill, the Senate had not given it the kind of scrutiny that met "both the aspirations of its supporters and concerns of those worried about its implementation," a signal that ministers want the council to settle unresolved questions before the law goes any further.
Why the Path Here Took So Long
The push for a French right to die law has been years in the making, and President Emmanuel Macron has long said he backs end of life legislation. But the process was knocked significantly off course when Macron called snap elections two years ago, a decision that delayed the bill's progress through parliament. Since 2024 there has also been visible reluctance among France's prime ministers to push the legislation forward, and Lecornu himself is known to hold his own reservations about some of its terms, even as his government allowed Wednesday's vote to go ahead.
Opposition From the Church and Parts of the Medical Profession
The question of assisted dying has proven highly contentious in French politics, drawing sustained opposition from the Catholic Church and from parts of the medical profession, who have raised concerns about the ethics and practicalities of allowing doctors and nurses to help end a patient's life. That opposition has been reflected in parliament's upper chamber: the Senate, which is dominated by right wing parties, has rejected the bill three times even as the National Assembly has now approved it four times. Yet opinion polls tell a different story among the wider public, suggesting that a large majority of French people support giving terminally ill patients a choice between palliative care and assisted dying, rather than leaving palliative care as the only option.
How France Would Compare With Its European Neighbours
If the law eventually takes effect, France would join a growing list of European countries that have decriminalised some form of assisted dying. The Netherlands and Belgium were among the first, legalising assisted dying back in 2002 for people suffering unbearably from an incurable illness, with the process allowed to be carried out by a physician. Several other European countries have passed similar legislation since then, and Switzerland has for decades permitted assisted suicide, provided that whoever assists the person acts without any selfish motive.
The Three Points Lecornu Wants the Council to Examine
Lecornu has specifically asked the Constitutional Council to focus its review on three parts of the bill. The first is the two day reflection period given to patients to confirm their request once a doctor has approved it, a window that opponents argue is simply too short given the finality of the decision. The second is how the law would apply to patients who are already under legal protection because of impaired judgement, and whether they can genuinely exercise free and informed consent under those circumstances. The third is the role that health and social care facilities would play in providing assisted dying services, particularly institutions whose entire purpose is to deliver palliative care to people who are terminally ill, raising the question of whether offering assisted dying inside those same facilities sits comfortably with their mission.
