Assisted dying, D-5: the text hasn't changed by a comma

On Wednesday, June 25, the National Assembly held two days of intense debates on the assisted dying bill, without a single amendment altering its substance. The solemn vote on June 30 looms, inevitable.

Verified Facts

On June 25, 2026, at the end of the second day of renewed debate in the National Assembly, the text on assisted dying remained unchanged, not even by a comma, according to Gènéthique. The debates were described as "tense," but parliamentary procedure held firm.

The "second deliberation" faced strong procedural criticism. Used once again to consolidate a text already locked in by the joint committee, this procedure is described by its opponents as "a new trend to achieve the desired text," bypassing substantive amendments.

The French Society for Palliative Care and Support (SFAP) had published a statement against the text on June 23—a rare signal from the very heart of the medical community. The Constitutional Council had closed the door to a referendum as early as June 2. All avenues for preventive legal recourse are now exhausted.

The solemn vote is scheduled for June 30, 2026.

Analysis of Underlying Issues

The second deliberation procedure raises a question of constitutional legitimacy. It allows the government to resubmit to the Assembly provisions already adopted, without going through committee. It is a regulatory tool, not an exception—but its repeated use on this text, as opponents sought to introduce medical safeguards, signals a desire to close the debate through procedure rather than conviction.

The exclusion of physicians from the lethal act, advocated by part of the centrist group, was maintained in the text through procedural means. This is no accident: it is a sign that the legislator has ruled in favor of "programmed death" in the exact sense that Pope Leo XIV gave to this expression during his visit to Pavia.

Doctrinal Perspective

The Catholic Church precisely distinguishes between the abandonment of futile treatment—legitimate and even desirable—and the deliberate provocation of death. Catholic doctrine on "extraordinary means" reminds us that a Catholic is not obliged to resort to everything medicine can do to prolong life, but cannot ask others to actively cause their death.

The adopted text deliberately confuses these two orders. It enshrines in French law a right to induced death that nothing in the Christian tradition can validate—not out of rigidity, but because the natural law inscribed in the medical vocation is precisely never to become the "handmaid of programmed death."

Food for Thought for the Reader

Five days remain before the vote on June 30. The great nine-day prayer launched by the Catholic movement covers exactly this week. It is less a lobbying strategy than an act of faith: the Church knows it cannot stop the vote, but it can refuse to participate spiritually in it as if it were normal.

The real question is not whether the law will pass—it will. It is how French Catholics will live in a country where programmed death is now a right. The answer requires understanding what it means to "bear witness" in a democracy that has made this choice.