The end-of-life bill arrives in the National Assembly on Monday, May 27. Les Républicains (LR) MP for Corrèze, Frédérique Meunier has already prepared herself for the idea of being “isolated in [sa] political family » during the discussions in the Hemicycle. Contrary to the majority of her group, the elected official says she has changed her mind on the subject after having participated for two years in the parliamentary working group. “Previously, I was very uncomfortable talking about the right to die, but after listening to the different testimonies, I understood that we had to hear this request”she says.
Of the seven LR deputies present in the special committee, Mme Meunier was the only one to support the main changes wanted by the left and part of the majority before the vote on the text by show of hands on the night of May 17 to 18. “Having discussed it with some undecided people in my group, what happened in committee will tip them towards a vote against”announces for her part the deputy for Doubs Annie Genevard.
Very hostile to the initial text, the general secretary of LR had expressed in committee her “astonishment” on the change in the conditions required to have access to this assistance in dying. “An essential barrier is overcome when the vital prognosis involved in the short or medium term is replaced by the notion of an illness in an advanced or terminal phase”she says.
With this new criterion, some denounce an acceptance that is far too broad. “We moved on to something elsedeplores Philippe Juvin, deputy for Hauts-de-Seine and doctor. Diabetes, for example. It is incurable, we do not know how to cure it and you may be in an advanced phase. This definition chosen to get rid of the term medium term which posed a problem is worse because it opens the field of end of life to people who are not going to die of their illness. »
The text “has become unbalanced”
On the right, the fiercest detractors even denounce “an anthropological and ethical rupture”, like the deputy for Bas-Rhin Patrick Hetzel. A step forward towards a right to euthanasia which would not reveal its name. Semantics is not a detail, according to Anne-Laure Blin. “With this text, we clearly change the paradigmregrets the elected representative from Maine-et-Loire. But without saying it because the words assisted suicide or euthanasia are never used. Obviously, some want to implement what is being done in Switzerland or Belgium. We must assume ! »
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For the most conservative line of the LR group, the episode of the special commission clearly shows that “activists of the cause will always want to go further”, advance Mme Blin. “Moreover, when we look at what is done in other countries, we clearly see that there is a risk of abuses. In reality, there cannot be “safeguards”, as the special commission demonstrated in just five days.she continues.
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