On Tuesday, the French Senate rejected for the second time the assisted suicide bill under debate, with the leader of the conservative party calling for a referendum on the issue to avoid it being approved without the Senate’s approval.

The National Assembly – France’s lower house – had already approved the bill twice, but the Senate, made up of more conservative and centrist politicians, rejected a key provision of the bill which sought to establish a right to assisted suicide.

On Monday evening, the Senate voted against Article 2 of the bill by 151 to 118, which dealt with the specifics of the future assisted suicide bill and when it would apply. This article was seen as a key aspect of the bill, and subsequently the bill was rejected outright. 

The Senate did pass another part of the law that improves access to palliative care, without amendment, by 325 votes to 18.

Up until now, the bill has had two positive readings in the National Assembly, and two rejections in the Senate.  

The third reading in the National Assembly could take place in June, while the third reading in the Senate and the final reading in the National Assembly could take place in July. The government, which backs the bill, is hoping it will pass before the summer recess in mid-July.

The government can give the final decision to the National Assembly, where there are more supporters of the bill. However, Bruno Retailleau, leader of the Republicans (LR) party, said he didn’t agree with this idea, and instead called for a referendum.

He said that such a “serious anthropological question” should be decided by the French people. “Such a fundamental text must benefit from a minimum of consensus,” he added.

Retailleau opposed the permissive wording of the bill. “If tomorrow the text were voted on…on the threshold of death, everyone will have to ask themselves if they are not a dead weight, if they are not a burden for society or for their loved ones,” he said. 

Senator Francis Szpiner (LR), who opposes the bill, said he had more than 195 signatures from parliamentarians, enough to launch a shared initiative referendum procedure in the coming days. However, this course of action has not been successful before.

Philippe Mouiller, chairman of the Senate Social Affairs Committee, revealed that the Senate couldn’t find “a guiding principle” on the proposed law.

The bill would allow someone with a terminal or incurable illness to request lethal medication, usually to administer themselves, although if they are not capable it can be administered by a medical professional. 

However, currently five conditions must be met: legal adulthood, free and informed consent, an incurable illness with a life-threatening prognosis, suffering resistant to treatment, and stable residence in France to prevent “death tourism.”

There is also the provision for doctors to reject the procedure on conscience, but they must refer the patient to someone else.

Catholic opposition

Last week, ahead of the debate, Bishop Marc Aillet of Bayonne, Lescar, and Oloron sent a letter to his diocese, calling on Catholics to oppose the legislation, saying it is “extremely serious” and an “anthropological rupture” that seeks to “abolish the prohibition against killing upon which life in society has always rested.”

“[T]he final adoption of this bill could only encourage the poorest or most vulnerable patients who lack access to palliative care, or so-called ‘eligible’ individuals who fear being a burden on their families, the medical community, or the social security budget, to resort to assisted suicide or euthanasia,” he said.

Aillet also emphasized that the solution to suffering is to improve palliative care rather than ending a life. 

“Almost all patients tempted to request assisted suicide or euthanasia abandon the idea once they are cared for in a palliative care unit capable of supporting and relieving their suffering, but in France, palliative care is still so inadequate, despite several laws adopted almost unanimously, that nearly half of our fellow citizens still cannot benefit from it,” he said.

In January, before the first debate in the Senate about the bill, the French bishops released a statement saying that “palliative care is the only truly effective response to the difficult situations of the end of life,” and that proper care “almost always leads to the disappearance of requests to die among terminally ill patients.”

“We do not care for life by giving death,” they added.