Assisted dying: the deputies who tipped the vote between June 30 and July 15

A few dozen vote changes mechanically made the adoption possible. Canon 915 and Bishop Aillet have imposed the sacramental consequence.

The fact

On July 17, 2026, Le Salon Beige published a nominative list of deputies who changed their vote between the ballot of June 30 (first reading) and that of July 15 (final adoption) of the law relating to end-of-life assistance. A few dozen parliamentarians tipped the result: abstentions turned into favorable votes, a few votes against became abstentions, very few took the opposite path. Mechanically, the movement played in favor of adoption.

Our analysis

We had already analyzed the parliamentary mechanics imposed by the executive, from the accelerated schedule by the Élysée to the application protocols prepared as early as February 2026. The changes in votes confirm the fragility of political conviction in the face of the pressure of the agenda and groups. Canon 915 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law states that those who persist obstinately in a grave and manifest sin are not admitted to holy communion. Mgr Aillet, bishop of Bayonne, Lescar and Oloron, has already publicly applied this rule by warning the Catholic deputies of his constituency. Those who, as declared Catholics, changed their vote between the two ballots bear an even heavier personal responsibility: they knew, they yielded.

To ponder

A deputy's vote is not a simple procedural gesture; it commits the person before God and before history. We pray for those who, personally, yielded, and we ask their pastors for the courage of charitable truth.