French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Monday in an exclusive interview with La Croix and Libération the outline of the French end-of-life bill, which opens the door for assisted dying in the country.

According to Macron, the proposed bill consists of three parts: introducing legislation respectively on supportive care, the rights of patients and caregivers and assisted dying. Regarding the last part, he stated that assistance will only be provided to those who have met the three conditions: being of legal age, which excludes terminally ill children; being capable of full and complete discernment, which excludes those diagnosed with psychiatric or neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s; and suffering from an incurable illness with a short or medium-term vital prognosis and refractory suffering.

A panel of doctors will then decide within fifteen days whether the criteria are met. The patient is allowed to appeal an unfavorable decision by requesting a second assessment with another medical team or taking legal action. 

If all conditions are met and the patient is sufficiently conscious, the patient will be able to commit assisted suicide by taking a lethal medication at their free will; however, if the patient is not in the state of administering the lethal substance, it is possible to engage a third party, such as relatives, caregivers, doctors or nurses, to complete the euthanasia. 

Meanwhile, the bill also introduces a ten-year strategy for palliative care and pain support. Currently, France spends 1.6 billion euros per year on palliative care, and the bill promises to invest an additional 1 billion euros over the next ten years.

In a post on X, Macron noted that the Claeys-Leonetti law, which sets the current legal framework allowing sedation of terminally ill patients under certain circumstances, sometimes fails to lead to a humane situation. Consequently, some of the patients are forced to go abroad for euthanasia. Notably, assisted suicide and euthanasia are currently legal in several European countries, such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain and Portugal. With the proposed bill in place, Macron believes it will bring “a true revolution of humanity and fraternity” to France.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said that the bill will be submitted to the National Assembly on May 27. He stated that “everyone must have the right to die with dignity.” That said, the bill still faces opposition from certain medical workers, political opponents and the Catholic Church.