France passes new end-of-life legislation to alleviate suffering

‘France passed legislation on Tuesday giving doctors new powers to place terminally-ill patients in a “deep sleep” until they die, sparking controversy over whether euthanasia should be fully legalised.
Eight out of 10 French people are in favour of allowing euthanasia and almost all – 96 per cent – back the “deep sleep” law, polls show. It will apply to patients who are conscious but in “unbearable” pain, whose treatment is not working or who decide to stop taking medication.

France legalised “passive euthanasia” in 2005, where treatment, needed to maintain life is withheld or withdrawn, but the government has refused to go further and allow full euthanasia, or assisted suicide, despite the huge public support.

The new measures, passed by a comfortable majority in the National Assembly, will allow doctors to combine passive euthanasia with “deep and continuous sedation”.’

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