France considers legalizing doctor-assisted suicide

French President Emmanuel Macron has suggested a bill would be drafted by the end of the summer that would determine whether assisted suicide would be allowed in the country or not. He also mentioned that he has set out to improve palliative care. 

DW reported that 184 randomly selected French citizens were invited to debate whether it should be legal for people to be assisted in dying. Of the large group, 76 percent suggested that they favored the proposal for those who want it. 

It is not yet clear whether Macron meant assisted suicide or euthanasia to be allowed in the country, or if there was the possibility of both. Reuters reported that Macron believed it was important to continue thinking about the subject, but that a consensus on the sensitive subject would eventually need to be had.

However, the country’s national council of doctors, l'Ordre des medecins, is apparently opposed to the idea that doctor-assisted suicide should be made legal.

Doctor-assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia are both methods of death that have been made legal in various countries throughout Europe. 

A surprising fact is that Switzerland has allowed doctor-assisted suicide since the 1940s. There are even those who travel to the country from around the world to have a medical physician usher them out of this world. According to Swissinfo.ch, there are 1,000 people who voluntarily die in Switzerland every year.

Reuters reported that Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Spain also permit the practice.

Last summer, it was reported that Italy had carried out his first case of medically assisted suicide, when an Italian man, paralyzed for 12 years, decided that he did not want to live anymore. He was administered a lethal drug and subsequently died in his home.