French senators rejected an assisted dying bill Monday (May 11) that alarmed pro-life advocates because it proposed prison terms and heavy fines for anyone accused of influencing patients away from euthanasia. Christian groups opposing the legislation are now urging the National Assembly to uphold the Senate’s decision when the bill returns for another reading.
The French Senate in Paris reviewed the second reading of the End of Life bill (“proposition de loi relative à la fin de vie”), which had previously been approved by the lower National Assembly in February 2026.
An “obstruction” offense included in Article 17 of the proposed law would have imposed penalties of up to two years in prison and a 30,000 euro ($32,500) fine on anyone preventing a patient from accessing assisted dying or obtaining information about it.
Bruno Retailleau, leader of the conservative Les Républicains party and a contender for France’s 2027 presidential election, argued against the bill during Senate debate, warning about financial pressures on the health care system and the risk of turning medical assistance in dying into a standard “right.”
“We must be clear about what is at stake here,” warned Retailleau. “This is not merely a technical adjustment of our medical ethics; it is a profound shift in the very foundation of our social contract.”
Retailleau said the proposal would add pressure to a health care system “already in a state of distress.”
“We cannot ignore the reality of our hospitals and our care facilities,” he added. “When we transform the act of ending a life into a legal ‘right,’ we open a door that can never be closed.”
The former interior minister also questioned whether the bill’s safeguards adequately protected vulnerable people.
“We are told this is about freedom,” Retailleau said. “But what kind of freedom is it when the state offers death as an alternative to the failure of our palliative care? True dignity lies in the accompaniment of the patient until the very end, not in the organized shortening of life.
“This is why, along with many of my colleagues, we cannot support a text that, in the name of a misguided progressivism, risks sacrificing the most vulnerable among us to the cold logic of budgetary constraints and legal precedents.”
Franck Meyer, president of the Evangelical Protestant Committee for Human Dignity (CPDH), a member organization of the Conseil National des Évangéliques de France, welcomed the Senate’s decision in a public statement issued by CPDH.
Meyer praised senators for adopting a separate text aimed at expanding palliative care and improving equal access to such care.
The rejected bill will now return to the National Assembly in Paris for a third reading, likely next month.
Meyer urged Christian and pro-life organizations to remain united in opposing what he described as “the final phase of a tumultuous legislative journey.”
“We desire a pure and simple abandonment of this unnecessary, divisive, and dangerous proposed law,” Meyer said.
He also encouraged French citizens to support a broader inter-associative mobilization against euthanasia involving CPDH, the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation, Alliance Vita, the Catholic Family Associations (AFC), and the OCH Foundation (Christian Office for People with Disabilities).
“Many professionals working in the fields of healthcare, personal care, or support services chose their profession out of a desire to serve and love their neighbor,” Meyer said.
“Many Christians practice these professions while also identifying with the words of the Hippocratic Oath: ‘I will do everything to relieve suffering; I will not prolong agony unreasonably; I will never deliberately cause death.’
“The slippages and obligations contained in the proposed law regarding the end of life would dehumanize their mission and could even render it unacceptable.
“Our associations call upon all citizens attached to human life not to give in to discouragement and to mobilize starting today.”
Before the original bill passed the National Assembly in May last year by a vote of 305 to 199, the Conseil National des Évangéliques de France issued a strongly worded letter to lawmakers titled “End of Life: Letter to Members of Parliament,” urging greater investment in palliative care rather than assisted dying.
“We ask every member of parliament to act for a humane society that cares for, accompanies, protects and honours life, reminding them that every human being, created in the image of God, possesses inestimable dignity, whatever their limitations or weaknesses,” CNEF wrote at the time.
CNEF has also expressed concern that the proposed law could restrict religious counseling for patients considering assisted dying. The evangelical alliance warned that pastors or Christian doctors presenting ethical arguments against assisted dying could face prosecution for exerting so-called “moral pressure.”
Although the French government included an individual conscience clause for doctors, CNEF objected to the absence of an institutional clause. According to the alliance, faith-based nursing homes, clinics and hospitals should not be legally required to permit assisted deaths on their premises.
Responding to the proposal, CNEF argued that the law would penalize both individual conscience and institutional identity.
