French National Assembly votes to legalize assisted suicide

Another country may soon allow adults to end their lives under certain conditions.

The National Assembly in France voted 305-199 this week to legalize physician-assisted suicide, with the left-wing and liberal parties generally supporting the measure and the center-right and right-wing parties opposing it. However, all parties gave lawmakers free votes to express their personal beliefs.

For the measure to become law, it must pass in the French Senate and be sent back to the National Assembly for a final vote before it reaches President Emmanuel Macron’s desk, the Guardian reports.

“I’m thinking of all the patients and their loved ones that I’ve met over more than a decade,” said Olivier Falorni, the bill’s left-wing sponsor. “Many are no longer here, and they always told me: Keep fighting.”

However, the measure has received pushback from France’s Catholic community.

Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort of Reims criticized Macron for calling assisted dying a “lesser evil,” as opposed to staying alive while ill.

“No, Mr. President, the choice to kill and to help kill is not the lesser evil,” the archbishop posted on X. “It is simply death. This must be said without lying and without hiding behind words. Killing cannot be the choice of brotherhood or dignity. It is the choice of abandonment and refusal to help until the end. This transgression will weigh heavily on the most vulnerable and lonely members of our society.” 

Additionally, Archbishop Vincent Jordy of Tours, vice president of the bishops’ conference, strongly opposes the proposal. 

Jordy wants France to improve palliative care instead. 

“We truly help people die when we accompany them to the end of their lives,” he told OSV News. “There is a glaring shortage of caregivers, and one in two French people who could claim it still do not have access to quality palliative care, which we know reduces requests for death in the vast majority of cases.” 

Currently, 11 U.S. states permit physician-assisted suicide. Delaware became the 11th state to legalize it earlier this month. 

Some of those states have even expanded the laws. 

Notably, Oregon and Vermont eliminated their assisted suicide residency requirements for out-of-staters in 2022 and 2023. Colorado also enacted a law in 2024 cutting the waiting period between oral requests from 15 days to seven, establishing waiting period waivers for some patients and permitting advanced practice registered nurses to prescribe assisted suicide. 

Additionally, Canada legalized assisted suicide in 2016. By 2022, it had become the country’s fifth-leading cause of death, increasing from 1,018 cases in 2016 to 13,241 cases in 2022.