The Senate rejected Tuesday, for the second time, the entire bill creating a right to assistance in dying. The president of the Republicans, Bruno Retailleau, also called for the organization of a referendum on this major societal reform. Â
As in the first reading, the Senate had previously not managed to overcome its divisions on end-of-life reform, rejecting on Monday evening a central article of the text creating a right to assistance in dying. The deputies could take control again.
Article 2 of MP Olivier Falorni’s bill, which defined the contours of the future assisted dying procedure and the situations to which it would apply, was carried away during the night from Monday to Tuesday, on the first day of the examination of this reform.
The government, which hopes for final adoption before the summer suspension of work, could choose to give in fine the last word to the National Assembly to bring about this major societal reform, dear to Emmanuel Macron.
L’article « clé de voûte » rejeté
Started more than three years ago via a citizens’ convention requested by the President of the Republic, the reflection around the end of life is in fact much more mature at the Palais Bourbon than at the Palais du Luxembourg. Twice already, deputies have voted for a regulated right to assisted dying accessible to certain patients suffering from a serious and incurable condition, with a fairly comfortable majority. In the Senate, on the other hand, the differences of opinion prove insurmountable.
Article 2, considered on all benches as the “keystone” of the reform, was thus rejected quite clearly (118 votes for, 151 votes against), by the addition of the votes of the socialists, who regretted a toughening of the text compared to the version of the deputies, and a part of the right, opposed to any form of assistance in dying, even if considerably restricted.
The majority of communists voted for and the environmentalists abstained, hoping to give the debate a chance. Without success.
As in the first reading, it is therefore the hard line of the President of the Republicans Bruno Retailleau who won the case. The presidential candidate mobilized again in the hemicycle throughout Monday evening, criticizing a “very permissive” text. “If tomorrow the text was voted on […] on the verge of death, everyone will have to ask themselves if they are not a dead weight, if they are not a burden for society or for those close to them,” he said, fearing that the “locks” surrounding this text will end up “blowing” in the future.
It was the hard line of Republican President Bruno Retailleau who won his case, the latter regretting a “very permissive” text. Photo Sipa/Stéphane Lemouton
The president of the socialist group, Patrick Kanner, justified the unfavorable vote of his troops for the opposite reasons, regretting the gradual unraveling of the National Assembly’s text. The flagship measure put to the vote no longer had anything to do with the version of the deputies: instead of a “right to assistance in dying”, it provided for “medical assistance in dying” reserved for patients whose vital prognosis is at risk “in the short term “, or potentially only a few days.
The referendum option is gaining ground
Proposed by LR rapporteurs Alain Milon and Christine Bonfanti-Dossat, this drafting aimed to establish an “alternative”, likely to weigh on the joint committee (CMP), a conciliation meeting of deputies that the government could soon convene. This strategy would have constituted a “path of wisdom”, launched Alain Milon, attached to “not sending back the image of a rearguard chamber” and to avoid letting the deputies legislate alone. “It’s no longer the time for strategy,” replied Place publique senator Bernard Jomier, noting that “at this rate, it would take fifteen readings for us to come to an agreement.” […] with the National Assembly”. The government also expressed its opposition to this new wording.
In recent days, the referendum option has also been talked about in the Senate: Senator LR Francis Szpiner, hostile to the reform, claimed to have gathered more than 195 signatures from parliamentarians, enough to launch a shared initiative referendum procedure. (RIP) in the coming days. This very complex process has, however, never been successful in the history of Parliament since its creation in 2008. Much more consensual, another text to strengthen palliative care was approved without modification, allowing its final adoption in Parliament.
