Hollande rules out legalised euthanasia

President François Hollande has ruled out allowing euthanasia in France by accepting a report by MPs proposing only small changes to current legislation, writes Tom Heneghan. But church experts said the proposals come quite close to doctor-assisted suicide.

Under the new law, which parliament should start debating next month, patients’ advance directives (“living wills”) indicating opposition to being kept alive artificially would be binding on doctors. Palliative care could include “deep and ongoing sedation” lasting until death.

Archbishop Pierre d’Ornellas, the bishops’ conference expert on bioethical issues, criticised the sedation proposal as coming close to assisted suicide and said the report seemed to create a right for patients to demand it.