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        <title>Christian Daily International | Euthanasia & Assisted Dying</title>
        <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/euthanasia-and-assisted-dying</link>
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            <title>Christian Daily International | Euthanasia & Assisted Dying</title>
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        <copyright>Christian Daily International © 2026</copyright>
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        <lastBuildDate>Mon, 02 Nov 2026 10:18:03 -0500</lastBuildDate>
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                <title><![CDATA[Canadian evangelicals raise concern over government plan for advance MAID requests]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/canadian-evangelicals-raise-concern-over-government-plan-for-advance-maid-requests</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiandaily.com/news/canadian-evangelicals-raise-concern-over-government-plan-for-advance-maid-requests</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Chris Eyte]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[assisted dying]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Sabine van Erp from Pixabay ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada has welcomed a bill that would stop medical assistance in dying (MAID) for mental illness alone but opposes its provision allowing advance requests for MAID. ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Mon, 02 Nov 2026 07:16:00 -0500</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[A bill that received first reading in Canada’s Parliament on Oct. 27 would stop medical assistance in dying (MAID) for mental illness alone. But the country’s national evangelical alliance is concerned that it would still allow advance requests for MAID.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
A bill that received first reading in Canada’s Parliament on Oct. 27 would stop medical assistance in dying (MAID) for mental illness alone. But the country’s national evangelical alliance is concerned that it would still allow advance requests for MAID.
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) welcomed Bill C-41, known as the Medical Assistance in Dying Safeguards Act, which was put forward by Justice Minister Sean Fraser. But it said it opposes the bill’s provision on advance requests.
The Canadian government said in a press release that provinces and territories could permit advance requests for MAID if they pass their own legislation.
“The Act would set minimum requirements for the lawful provision of MAID based on an advance request,” the government said.
“Provinces and territories that wish to permit advance requests in their jurisdictions would need to enact legislation to ensure safe implementation.”
Under the bill, people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease could make advance requests in provinces or territories that allow them.
“Adults who have been diagnosed with a capacity-limiting disease, like Alzheimer’s, would be eligible to make such a request in provinces or territories that have chosen to permit advance requests in their jurisdictions,” the government said. “Provinces and territories are responsible for regulating and delivering health care. The federal government will continue working with them in implementation.”
In a news update, the EFC said ending MAID for mental illness alone was the right conclusion.
The plan for advance requests, however, drew concern from the group.
“We are very concerned that the bill would also allow advance requests for MAiD when certain criteria are met. We oppose advance requests for euthanasia,” the EFC said.
According to the EFC, an advance request for MAID sets a “dangerous precedent” because it applies when a person is no longer able to give consent. The group said the approach devalues human life and pledged to keep close watch on the bill.]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Evangelical group welcomes plan to halt MAiD for mental illness, warns on advance requests]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/evangelical-group-welcomes-plan-to-halt-maid-for-mental-illness-warns-on-advance-requests</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiandaily.com/news/evangelical-group-welcomes-plan-to-halt-maid-for-mental-illness-warns-on-advance-requests</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Chris Eyte]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[assisted dying]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Sabine van Erp from Pixabay ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ An evangelical group welcomed Canada’s plan to halt MAiD for mental illness but warned against allowing advance requests. ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Mon, 12 Oct 2026 07:17:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) has welcomed the federal government’s pledge to permanently stop the planned expansion of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) to people whose only condition is mental illness.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) has welcomed the federal government’s pledge to permanently stop the planned expansion of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) to people whose only condition is mental illness.
But the group says it has “grave concerns” about the government’s plan, announced at the same time, to allow advance requests for MAiD.
MAiD for mental illness alone is provisionally set to become available March 17, 2027. The government says it will introduce a bill this fall to cancel that expansion before the deadline.
The announcement came after MPs voted down a private member’s bill, 187-141, on Oct. 7. Member of Parliament Tamara Jansen introduced Bill C-218, which the EFC supported, in the House of Commons on June 20, 2025. It would have removed the provisions set to allow MAiD for mental illness alone in 2027.
“The EFC had supported this bill to stop MAiD for mental illness,” the EFC said in a statement. “We regret that it did not pass. We thank the bill’s sponsor and all those who championed it.”
After the vote, Justice Minister Sean Fraser and Health Minister Marjorie Michel held a press conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa.
Fraser said the government would introduce legislation this fall “to permanently halt the expansion of MAID for individuals whose sole underlying condition is a mental illness.”
“To be clear: our government has decided not to proceed with expanding MAID eligibility to include mental illness as a sole underlying condition,” he said.
Fraser said the government had concluded from evidence and discussions with experts across the country that “the health system is not in a position to safely and consistently apply MAiD safeguards for individuals suffering solely from psychiatric conditions.”
“Assessing irremediability in mental disorders presents unique, profound challenges that distinguish it from physical or terminal conditions,” he said.
When a person is in severe psychiatric distress, Fraser said, telling apart a desire to die caused by mental illness and “a clear, fully informed decision to access MAID requires absolute scientific and clinical certainty.”
“That certainty simply does not exist across our medical systems today,” he said.
“Our primary duty as a government is the protection of vulnerable Canadians,” Fraser added. He said the government would instead focus on strengthening mental health care, expanding suicide prevention services and supporting people in distress.
Michel said the government would “double down” on mental health support. She pledged to strengthen community-based mental health programs, improve rapid access to psychiatric care and therapy across provinces and territories, and expand crisis intervention and suicide prevention resources, including the national 988 lifeline.
“We must ensure that no Canadian ever feels that ending their life is the only option available due to a lack of timely health services or social support,” she said.
The EFC said it was “thankful for this positive news.” But the group is concerned that the same fall bill would change the Criminal Code to allow advance requests for MAiD in some provinces that have legislated a system of safeguards.
Fraser said advance requests would be for people diagnosed with a serious and irremediable illness who may lose the capacity to consent in the future.
“The EFC’s response to this future legislation is likely to be nuanced,” the EFC statement said.
The group said it has advocated extensively for an indefinite delay of MAiD for mental illness and welcomed the government’s position.
“At the same time, we have grave concerns about allowing advance requests for MAiD. The time is short,” the statement said.
The vote came two days after two University of Toronto psychiatry professors raised concerns about Canada’s MAiD system in The New York Times.
In an Oct. 5 op-ed, Madeline Li and Gary Rodin described a woman in her 70s who was approved for assisted dying after she lost the ability to cook for her family, The Christian Post reported. She felt she had lost her value to them.
After counseling, she decided not to go through with it, the psychiatrists wrote. Li and Rodin, one of whom has administered MAiD, warned that Canada’s system “is no longer an option of last resort.”]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Pope Leo warns against 'false compassion' as assisted dying laws spread]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/pope-leo-warns-against-false-compassion-as-assisted-dying-laws-spread</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiandaily.com/news/pope-leo-warns-against-false-compassion-as-assisted-dying-laws-spread</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[CDI Staff]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[Pope Leo XIV greets pilgrims at a care center for sick and disabled pilgrims in Lourdes, France, on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026.]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Screenshot/Vatican News ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Pope Leo XIV greets pilgrims at a care center for sick and disabled pilgrims in Lourdes, France, on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. During the visit, the pope urged health care workers to reject assisted death offered "under the guise of false compassion" and told the sick, "You are not a burden." ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Mon, 28 Sep 2026 15:37:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[Pope Leo XIV told sick pilgrims and health care workers in Lourdes, France, on Sunday (Sept. 27) that they "must reject the temptation to cause death under the guise of false compassion," Vatican News reported.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
Pope Leo XIV told sick pilgrims and health care workers in Lourdes, France, on Sunday (Sept. 27) that they "must reject the temptation to cause death under the guise of false compassion." Vatican News reported.
The remarks, delivered at a care center for sick and disabled pilgrims, came less than two months after France's Constitutional Council cleared the way for a national law permitting assisted dying. Lawmakers in other European countries, Canada and parts of Latin America are debating or widening similar measures. In the address as reported by Vatican News, the pope did not name a specific country or bill.
Speaking directly to the sick, Leo acknowledged that illness can leave people uncertain and without hope. "But no human law should ever make you lose the certainty of your dignity," he said, adding that "what is legal is not necessarily moral."
He rooted the appeal in human dignity, which he said every person possesses simply by existing. "Our dignity cannot be measured or debated," he said.
The pope then addressed medical staff. He called on "the entire healthcare community to remember the profound meaning of your vocation, which is to care for a suffering person, not eliminate that person."
Leo urged doctors and nurses to be "passionate defenders of life" and said no one has the right to decide whether an embryo or an elderly person should live. He encouraged them to support genuine palliative care and research.
"You are not a burden," he told the sick. "You are the beating heart of our humanity."
Evangelical opposition
French evangelicals have raised a similar concern about pressure on vulnerable patients. After the National Assembly passed the assisted dying bill 291-241 on July 15, the National Council of Evangelicals of France (CNEF) told Christian Daily International it feared the law would push people who see themselves as a burden on relatives or society toward ending their lives.
CNEF called instead for fair and rapid expansion of palliative care, which it said is still out of reach in many parts of the country. On Aug. 14, the Constitutional Council upheld the law while allowing faith-based institutions and pharmacists to opt out of participating.
Across the English Channel, lawmakers took a different course. Members of the U.K. Parliament voted 286-270 on Sept. 11 to reject a bill that would have allowed mentally competent, terminally ill adults in England and Wales with six months or less to live to end their lives. It was the second such attempt; an identical earlier bill passed the House of Commons but stalled in the House of Lords.
The Evangelical Alliance of the U.K., which campaigned against the legislation, welcomed the result. "Parliament has voted to reject dangerous and unworkable plans that would have put the most vulnerable at risk," said Danny Webster, the alliance's director of advocacy. He called on the government to focus on strengthening palliative care.
In Canada, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada has long opposed the country's Medical Assistance in Dying program, saying it "fundamentally devalues human life and normalizes suicide." Eligibility is scheduled to extend on March 17, 2027, to people whose only condition is mental illness unless Parliament acts to delay or repeal the change.
Italian evangelicals have taken the same position as national polling shows growing public support for euthanasia. "Preserving life and preventing death must be the moral threshold," Lucia Stelluti, vice president of the Italian Evangelical Alliance, told Christian Daily International in May.
The Lourdes stop was part of a four-day papal visit to France. Before leaving the care center, Leo met privately with residents too ill to join the larger gathering, Vatican News reported. "Life is beautiful and precious," he told them. "Do not be discouraged."]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[New chair of Jersey’s Assisted Dying Service previously said 'assisted suicide does harm others']]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/new-chair-of-jerseys-assisted-dying-service-previously-said-assisted-suicide-does-harm-others</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiandaily.com/news/new-chair-of-jerseys-assisted-dying-service-previously-said-assisted-suicide-does-harm-others</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[CDI Staff]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[Sarah Wollaston]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ MP Dr Sarah Wollaston speaks to the media during a press conference after resigning from the Conservative Party along with 2 other MPs on February 20, 2019 in London, England. ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Thu, 24 Sep 2026 17:25:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[A new chair appointed to oversee the implementation of Jersey’s Assisted Dying Service previously argued that allowing doctors to prescribe medication with the intent of causing death would fundamentally change the relationship between doctors and their patients.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
A new chair appointed to oversee the implementation of Jersey’s Assisted Dying Service previously argued that allowing doctors to prescribe medication with the intent of causing death would fundamentally change the relationship between doctors and their patients.
The Government of Jersey announced Sept. 3 that Dr. Sarah Wollaston, who spent 24 years working in hospital and primary care settings, had been appointed chair of the Assisted Dying Assurance and Delivery Committee. Wollaston is a former member of the UK Parliament and former chair of the Health and Care Select Committee in England and NHS Devon. She will lead the committee overseeing the implementation of Jersey’s Assisted Dying Service.
Assisted dying was approved by the States Assembly in February and received Royal Assent in July. The law requires the new service to be implemented and operated in accordance with the legislation and requires the committee to assure the Minister for Health and Social Services of the service’s quality and safety.
Wollaston said she was “honored” to have been appointed chair of the Assisted Dying Assurance and Delivery Committee.
“I want to make sure that this new service for the residents of Jersey is compassionate and lawful, with well-trained and supported staff, and that everyone involved keeps patients and their loved ones at the heart of everything we all do,” Wollaston said.
Wollaston previously wrote an opinion piece in The Guardian on Aug. 17, 2012, in which she expressed concerns about the implications of assisted dying for both doctors and patients.
“It isn't just the religious lobby that is opposed to a change in the law to allow assisted suicide,” Wollaston wrote.
“I have no faith banner to raise, and as a former doctor I know there are conditions for which I might at some point wish to end my life. Despite this, I don't believe I should have a right to make a doctor complicit in that decision.”
People with capacity should have a right to make decisions for themselves — “even if we don't agree with them, except where those decisions harm others,” Wollaston added.
“Assisted suicide does harm others: it harms the doctors who take on the responsibility for killing their patients,” Wollaston wrote.
“There is a vast difference between the moral responsibility in doctors withholding treatment that will end life and actively prescribing with the primary intent to ensure death. Failed attempts and the methods used may be distressing, but that does not justify the right to a clinically delivered death, which would fundamentally change the relationship between doctors and their patients and threaten to change the way society weighs the value of human life.”
The Assisted Dying Assurance and Delivery Committee is established in Jersey’s legislation. It will comprise between seven and 15 members, including a member from end-of-life or palliative care services and a representative of patients and/or relatives. Recruitment for the remaining committee members will begin in the coming months, following the appointment of the chair.
Senator Tom Binet, Jersey’s Minister for Health and Social Services, said Wollaston brings “extensive clinical experience, a strong understanding of health and care governance and a proven track record of public service.”
“Her role will be to provide independent assurance as the Committee oversees the implementation of the law approved by the Assembly,” Binet said.
“This appointment is about ensuring that, as we work towards the law coming into force, robust safeguards, effective governance and patient safety remain central. I look forward to working with Dr. Wollaston and the Committee as they undertake this important responsibility.”]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[French Constitutional Council safeguards faith-based opt-outs in euthanasia law ]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/french-constitutional-council-safeguards-faith-based-opt-outs-in-euthanasia-law</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiandaily.com/news/french-constitutional-council-safeguards-faith-based-opt-outs-in-euthanasia-law</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Chris Eyte]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[French senate]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Wikimedia Commons / Jacques Paquier ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ The French Senate in Paris, where lawmakers have debated the assisted dying bill. ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Mon, 17 Aug 2026 07:55:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) has welcomed a ruling on Aug. 14 by the French Constitutional Council to protect the rights of faith-based institutions to opt out of assisting patients to die.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) has welcomed a ruling on Aug. 14 by the French Constitutional Council to protect the rights of faith-based institutions to opt out of assisting patients to die.
The ECLJ previously warned about France’s proposed "aid in dying" legislation, arguing that the bill introduces a "radical" euthanasia framework with minimal oversight that threatens human dignity and vulnerable populations.
The council ruled on the recently passed euthanasia law, ensuring that faith-based institutions like Catholic nursing homes and hospitals, can opt out of providing euthanasia by including a life-affirming ethical charter in their statutes. The ruling also grants pharmacists a conscience clause allowing them to refuse participation.
In an email to supporters, ECLJ Director Grégor Puppinck confirmed that euthanasia will remain prohibited in all private institutions that choose to opt out.
"These institutions need only declare their respect for life in their statutes or through an ethical charter," Puppinck wrote. "This is their right, as finally recognized and guaranteed by the Constitutional Council on Aug. 14, 2026. Similarly, all pharmacists are now granted a conscience clause, which had previously been denied to them by [French President Emmanuel] Macron’s majority."
Puppinck hailed the decision as "a great victory" within "the grim context surrounding the adoption of this unjust law,” and publicly gave thanks to God for the outcome.
"There will continue to be sanctuaries in France where vulnerable people will not be in mortal danger," he said.
However, Puppinck lamented that the council upheld all other provisions of the law, including a short 48-hour window to confirm a person’s wish to die, the absence of family notification, a lack of legal remedies, and the provision of euthanasia for individuals under legal guardianship.
"The serious risks of abuse created by this law - which we denounced in our statement to the Council - have therefore not been addressed," he added.
A motion to recuse Jacques Mézard, a council member and vocal euthanasia advocate, was also rejected.
"He therefore participated in the decision," Puppinck said. "This decision could therefore be challenged on grounds of bias before the European Court of Human Rights. We will continue the fight."
Looking ahead, the ECLJ director expressed determination to expand legal efforts beyond France.
"We will now continue this fight in other countries that have already legalized euthanasia, in order to guarantee the freedom of faith-based institutions there as well," Puppinck wrote. 
"In France, we are preparing to challenge the implementing decrees that will be adopted by the government in the coming months. Sadly, we are also preparing to counsel families who will be faced with a decision regarding the euthanasia of a loved one."]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Canadian evangelicals urged to contact MPs over assisted suicide for mental illness]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/canadian-evangelicals-urged-to-contact-mps-over-assisted-suicide-for-mental-illness</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiandaily.com/news/canadian-evangelicals-urged-to-contact-mps-over-assisted-suicide-for-mental-illness</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Chris Eyte]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[Canada’s Parliament building. Members of Parliament passed hate-crime law removing religious defense on June 17, 2026.]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Brigitte Werner from Pixabay ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Thu, 06 Aug 2026 15:25:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[Canadian evangelicals are being urged to contact their local MPs to express concern over plans to extend assisted suicide to people with mental illness.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
Canadian evangelicals are being urged to contact their local MPs to express concern over plans to extend assisted suicide to people with mental illness.
Changes to the eligibility criteria for euthanasia and assisted suicide will be expanded to cover mental illness as a sole underlying condition from March 17, 2027. 
With the deadline under eight months away, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) said that the summer recess offers a vital opportunity for constituents to advocate while MPs are meeting with people in their local ridings.
The call to action follows a report tabled in June by a parliamentary committee recommending an indefinite delay to the mental illness expansion. While the recommendation marked a positive development for opponents of the legislation, the federal government has yet to adopt the committee's proposal.
Meanwhile, pro-euthanasia advocacy groups, including Dying with Dignity, are actively pressing the government to allow the expansion to proceed as planned.
The EFC emphasized that grassroots advocacy can play a crucial role in determining the outcome when Parliament resumes in the fall.
When the House of Commons reconvenes in late September, lawmakers are expected to debate and vote on Bill C-218, a private member’s bill that would amend the Criminal Code to permanently exclude mental illness from MAiD eligibility.
In an update to supporters, EFC editor Rachel Baarda encouraged believers to contact their representatives to advocate for an indefinite pause or a complete reversal of the law.
The EFC said even brief contact with constituency offices could help ensure MPs are aware of voters’ concerns about mental healthcare and the protection of vulnerable people.
“As Canadians, we have the opportunity to shape what happens next, to be part of this process,” the EFC stated. 
“The door is open for an indefinite delay to MAiD for mental illness, if not a reversal of the expansion. Let’s encourage our country to move towards offering care and support for those struggling with mental illness, rather than offering death via MAiD.”]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[ECLJ director raises alarm over 'totalitarian' French assisted dying bill ahead of final vote]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiandaily.com/news/eclj-director-raises-alarm-over-totalitarian-french-assisted-dying-bill-ahead-of-final-vote</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiandaily.com/news/eclj-director-raises-alarm-over-totalitarian-french-assisted-dying-bill-ahead-of-final-vote</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Chris Eyte]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[French senate]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Wikimedia Commons / Jacques Paquier ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ The French Senate in Paris, where lawmakers have debated the assisted dying bill. ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Wed, 15 Jul 2026 08:04:00 -0400</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[A prominent Christian legal advocacy group is alarmed about France's proposed "aid in dying" legislation, warning that the bill introduces a "radical" euthanasia framework with minimal oversight that threatens human dignity and vulnerable populations.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
A prominent Christian legal advocacy group is alarmed about France's proposed "aid in dying" legislation, warning that the bill introduces a "radical" euthanasia framework with minimal oversight that threatens human dignity and vulnerable populations.
The warning from the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), a non-governmental organization specializing in human rights and religious freedom, comes during a high-stakes week for the French parliament.
On July 7, the French Senate voted 169–164 to reject the legislation for the third time. However, because the lower house holds ultimate legislative authority under Article 45 of the French Constitution, the text has been sent back to the National Assembly for a final, definitive vote scheduled Wednesday, July 15.
In response to this looming deadline, the ECLJ has compiled a detailed analysis identifying 27 distinct legal and ethical flaws within the text, urgently lobbying members of the National Assembly to uphold the Senate's rejection. The group asserts that the bill leaves final decision-making power entirely to individual doctors with very limited external oversight.
Speaking on the French podcast and media platform Tocsin, Grégor Puppinck, the ECLJ's director, said the planned legislation is extremely radical in the possibility of accessing euthanasia and assisted suicide, giving "immense power" to a single doctor.
"There is no requirement for formalism regarding the expression of this request. So no proof is necessary—no witnesses, no written documents," said Puppinck. "Only the doctor, who afterward can just say, 'Yes, yes, in fact, this person asked to die.'"
Puppinck pointed out the vulnerability of a patient unable to communicate except through facial expressions or vulnerabilities in knowing their own mind, such as with dementia, and how acquiescence in agreeing to their own death, and the interpretation by a single doctor, could be highly subjective.
"The doctor only has to inform the guardian or curator and obtain their opinion. That's all. Obtain their opinion," said Puppinck. "Then, the doctor confirms his decision to the suicidal person, the person who wants to die. So yes, indeed, I agree to let you die. I agree to euthanize you.
"At that point, there is a waiting period of only 48 hours… And, after two days, the doctor can perform the euthanasia."
Puppinck pointed out the naivety and danger of presuming all doctors "are all people with extraordinary morals" and referenced the case of Nicolas Bonnemaison, a French emergency physician famously prosecuted for giving lethal injections to terminally ill patients. Puppinck said "among doctors there are people like the former Dr. Bonnemaison, who believe they are doing good by killing people, by shortening their old age, and who genuinely believe it and have done it."
The ECLJ director also warned that any establishment, including private facilities and not just public hospitals, such as those for disabled children or youths, would be required under the planned law to allow mobile euthanasia teams to enter their premises. Puppinck lamented that the euthanasia law would "impose itself on everyone" and claimed that ideological proponents "who have their hatred of the Church deep-seated in their core… went so far as wanting to impose it on every institution, public as well as private."
"Private funded by the State or not funded by public money—even the institution, the simplest association, entirely independent, entirely funded by private funds, is subject to this obligation to accept euthanasia within its walls," he added, drawing a parallel to historical totalitarian practices that forced state-mandated death procedures on the general populace.
"It's the same logic really, totalitarian in fact, which shows that this [legislation] text is not a text of freedom, that it is a text of coercion to change—to change society. We must fight to defend the freedom of private institutions, including and in particular denominational ones, not just Catholic, so that we have safe places where we can go ourselves when we are old or sick, where we can place our loved ones, and that is essential."
According to the ECLJ's legal breakdown of Articles 5 and 6, the legislation lacks strict formal requirements for expressing a wish to die, allowing requests to be made by written note or any other alternative means of expression appropriate to the person's abilities. Because the bill allows doctors to meet with patients alone, the ECLJ warns that no independent witnesses are required to verify the authenticity of a patient's request.
The legal group also highlighted several rapid procedural timelines embedded in the text. A physician may approve a request and administer the lethal substance on the very first day of meeting a patient, without needing to be their primary care provider.
Additionally, the mandatory reflection period for a patient is only two days after a doctor's approval, meaning an entire euthanasia process could theoretically be completed within 72 hours. Any official review of the procedure occurs only after the patient has died, relying entirely on documentation provided by the deciding physician.
The Christian rights group expressed deep concern for individuals with cognitive impairments, mental health struggles, or advanced age. The ECLJ points out that the bill permits euthanasia for individuals under guardianship or conservatorship, provided their judgment is not deemed "seriously" impaired.
The legislation does not explicitly exclude individuals suffering from severe mental disorders or those exhibiting suicidal tendencies. The ECLJ argues that because the law does not require a patient to be terminally ill, individuals who might otherwise have many years to live could qualify for assisted death, leaving senile, bedridden, or mentally impaired individuals particularly exposed to societal pressure and potential abuse.
Beyond patient protections, the ECLJ's analysis highlights what it describes as severe incursions into freedom of conscience for healthcare workers and private institutions. Under Article 14 of the draft law, healthcare professionals who object to performing euthanasia on moral or religious grounds are legally compelled to designate a willing alternative physician. Pharmacists are similarly denied a conscience clause, leaving them subject to disciplinary sanctions if they refuse to prepare lethal medications.
This mandate extends to faith-based and religious care facilities, which would be legally required to host mobile euthanasia teams and allow the procedure to take place on their premises, even if the entire institutional staff objects, under penalty of prosecution and financial sanctions.
This legislative push comes at a time when access to holistic end-of-life care in France remains highly unequal. The French Society for Support and Palliative Care (SFAP) estimates that up to one million citizens could currently qualify for the procedure, yet roughly 20 departments in France completely lack dedicated palliative care units, and less than half of the national demand for palliative care is met.
The ECLJ also pointed to economic reports suggesting that the legalization of assisted dying could reduce healthcare, elderly care, and retirement expenditures by approximately 1.4 billion euros annually. Critics worry these fiscal dynamics could inadvertently incentivize the state to favor euthanasia over expanding costly long-term care infrastructure.
As the debate reaches its climax ahead of the National Assembly's vote, the ECLJ has confirmed it is mobilizing a legal strategy to contest the bill at the highest levels. If the text is adopted into law, the organization plans to bring formal challenges before France's Constitutional Council and the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that the framework violates fundamental international protections regarding the right to life and freedom of conscience.]]></content:encoded>
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