Assisted dying passed: the Church enters into resistance

Context

We had announced the solemn vote of June 30 as an irreversible threshold: it has been crossed. The National Assembly has definitively adopted the law opening active assistance in dying in France. For the first time since the abolition of the death penalty in 1981, French law authorizes a deliberately lethal act. Archbishop Ulrich of Paris had asked deputies to renounce it. The law is now passed.

The Facts

Adopted after three readings in the National Assembly, the law allows adults suffering from a serious and incurable illness to request medical assistance in dying. Healthcare professionals have an individual conscience clause. However, healthcare establishments—including Catholic ones—cannot invoke an institutional conscience clause: they must refer patients to facilities willing to perform the lethal act, under penalty of administrative sanctions. The High Authority for Health was already working, even before the vote, to define the substances likely to be used.

Doctrinal Analysis

Evangelium Vitae by John Paul II leaves no ambiguity: euthanasia is a grave violation of God’s Law, as a morally unacceptable deliberate killing (EV 65, 1995). The Catechism of the Catholic Church confirms: "An action or an omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, its Creator" (CCC 2277). The same encyclical also settles the question of the legitimacy of civil laws in this area: "Laws which authorize and promote euthanasia are radically opposed to the common good they are supposed to serve" (EV 72). Cardinal Sarah and Archbishop Ulrich had solemnly warned that voting for this law morally engages each legislator before God.

Stakes for the Church and the Faithful

The absence of an institutional conscience clause places Catholic healthcare establishments in an unprecedented situation: either comply with the law and betray their founding charism, or resist and face administrative or financial sanctions. Catholic healthcare professionals have fragile individual protection, exposed to pressures from administrations and colleagues. The French episcopate will need to quickly decide on a clear course of action for Catholic hospitals and nursing homes. Legal recourse—Council of State, or even a priority question of constitutionality—remains a path to explore without delay.

Critical Reading and Blind Spots

Catholic mobilization was real and massive—marches, pastoral letters, petitions from healthcare professionals, appeals from theologians—but insufficient to influence a vote that was decided in the corridors of the hemicycle, not in public opinion. The question arises sharply: does the Church in France have the tools for organized and lasting resistance? The Dutch (first country to legalize euthanasia, in April 2002) and Belgian (May 2002) experiences show that laws on assistance in dying inexorably expand beyond initial cases; legislative vigilance will need to be exercised for years, not weeks.

To Reflect and Act

"Be strong and courageous" (Joshua 1:9). The time is no longer for petitions, but for concrete and organized witness: financially and morally supporting healthcare professionals who exercise their conscience clause, accompanying Catholic establishments that refuse to submit, massively developing palliative care as a credible and humane alternative. The law has been passed; the Church must now demonstrate, through its actions, that another way of accompanying the dying is not only possible, but superior.