Assisted Dying: The Senate Raises a Last-Minute Barrier

Context

We had reported on the National Assembly's vote on June 30: the bill on "aid in dying" was adopted after a nighttime debate, with 312 votes in favor and 179 against. The French Bishops' Conference immediately denounced a law that "enshrines in law the possibility of deliberately causing death." The parliamentary shuttle was set to begin. The Senate now takes the stage with a rare initiative.

Facts

The Senate's competent committee adopted a motion to reject the bill and formally requested the government to suspend its review. This procedure, rarely used under the Fifth Republic, signals a fundamental disagreement—constitutional or political—on the text's appropriateness. Meanwhile, relatives of patients in palliative care testified in La Croix about the concrete risks of abuse: family, financial, and social pressure could turn the "right" to die into a tacit obligation for the most vulnerable. These testimonies align with warnings from geriatricians and palliative care physicians, who have been alerting for months about the real conditions under which requests for aid in dying will be made.

Doctrinal Analysis

The Gospel of Life (Evangelium Vitae, John Paul II, 1995, §65) states unequivocally: "Euthanasia is a grave violation of the law of God, as it is the deliberate and morally unacceptable killing of a human person." The Catechism of the Catholic Church (§2277) specifies that acts or omissions which, in themselves or by intention, cause death in order to eliminate suffering, constitute homicide gravely contrary to human dignity. The French law, by establishing as a right the act of deliberately causing death, enshrines in the legal order what the moral order absolutely condemns.

Stakes for the Church and the Faithful

The Senate's resistance buys time. This time must be used to secure two minimal guarantees: the individual conscience clause for caregivers, and above all, the institutional conscience clause for Catholic healthcare facilities. The CEF has not yet taken a precise public stance on this second point. This is an urgent gap to fill, for without this clause, Catholic hospitals and nursing homes will be forced to practice what they condemn or to close.

Critical Reading and Blind Spots

The Senate's rejection motion is a procedural step, not a victory. The government can bypass the Senate's resistance, and the parliamentary schedule may resume. The absence of a preventive referral to the Constitutional Council is notable: a subsequent QPC remains possible but would come after promulgation, too late to block the law. Furthermore, the public debate remains skewed: polls measure diffuse support for "dying with dignity," not informed approval of a specific text whose implications for palliative care remain unknown to the vast majority.

To Reflect and Act

The fight for palliative care is a work of corporal mercy. Every Catholic can take concrete action: financially support palliative care homes, train families in drafting advance directives refusing euthanasia, and demand from their senators the protection of the institutional conscience clause. The Senate's resistance shows that society is not unanimous. The voice of the faithful matters, now.