French Parliament initiates process of legalizing euthanasia
The bill was supported by centrist deputies and left-wing parties, while the majority of right-wing parties opposed it.
The Parliament of France voted for a bill to legalize euthanasia, which will allow caregivers to kill "sick and suffering" patients. The British edition The Guardian, which reports on this legislative initiative, writes that until now this issue has been one of the strictest in Europe.
"After a sometimes emotional session, deputies passed the first reading of the bill by a vote of 305 to 199. They also unanimously backed a less contentious law establishing a right to palliative care in specialist end-of-life institutions," writes The Guardian.
Both votes are the start of a long parliamentary process that will require the bills to move on to the Senate – the upper house – and then back to the lower house – the National Assembly – for a second reading, meaning they are unlikely to become law before next year.
In turn, the French government characterized the so-called "right-to-die law" as an "an ethical response to the need to support the sick and the suffering", insisting it was “neither a new right nor a freedom … but a balance between respect and personal autonomy”.
As reported by the UOJ, in Canada, every twentieth person dies as a result of euthanasia.
