Ruling allows French private hospitals limited exemption from assisted suicide

The Constitutional Council said that judges interpreting the law must allow private hospitals and hospices – a minority of them Catholic – to refuse if it went against their stated mission and other facilities were ‘able to meet local needs’.

Private hospitals can opt out of France’s assisted suicide and euthanasia bill if they fulfil certain conditions, the Constitutional Council ruled, ending a long and finally successful effort to legalise the practices.

A reform championed by President Emmanuel Macron, the legalisation of assisted suicide and euthanasia were approved by the National Assembly for the third time in July but opposed by the Senate. In French law, the National Assembly version takes precedence over the upper house in such a tie.

The bill then went to the Constitutional Council for checks that it adheres to the law. It ruled the bill could go into force without the clause of conscience that opponents had insisted on as an opt-out.

The issue has been controversial in France, even though it would involve a minority of patients and opinion polls show majority public support for it. Opponents argued the bill would break the principle of “do no harm” and force medical staff to kill some patients.

The Council squared this circle by ruling that judges interpreting the law must allow private hospitals and hospices – a minority of them Catholic – to ban the practice if it went against their stated mission and other facilities were “able to meet local needs”.

That means voluntary death would be induced in a state-run hospital where medical staff do not have a blanket opt-out in the bill.

The bill, which allows assisted suicide and permits staff to euthanise a patient unable to take the lethal drugs, became law on 19 August when it was published with Macron’s approval. The Council ruling was on 14 August.

“The sadness of the law that was passed remains,” said Bishop Matthieu Rougé of Nanterre, a bishops’ conference spokesman on end-of-life issues. “Aid in dying takes precedence over aid in living.”

Catholic institutions should “continue to demonstrate positively that another model is possible”, he added.

Until now, French law only allowed “profound sedation” for patients near death. Assisted suicide is legal in several neighbouring states and a small number of ailing French patients opt for it in Belgium or Switzerland.

Avoiding political controversy, organisers of Pope Leo’s visit to France next month have dropped considerations that he visits the Catholic-run palliative care centre Jeanne Garnier in Paris.

In its decision, the Council added that a pharmacist cannot be forced to mix drugs for an assisted death and that doctors must “take account” of the opinions of legal guardians of patients seeking to end their lives.

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