France's MPs have backed the right to assisted dying: here's why we should welcome it
On May 27th the French Parliament's lower chamber, the National Assembly, voted for a bill that gives the right to assisted dying. The Senate, the upper chamber, still has to vote on the law and that could be a long process. But for reasons of democracy, secularism and the new freedom it creates, we should welcome the MPs' backing for this new right in France, argues Mediapart's co-editor Lénaïg Bredoux in this op-ed article. However, she says that now more than ever we must battle to save our healthcare system, so that neoliberalism and capitalist cost-cutting can never exploit this right in order to choose who among us should exercise it.
ItIt was a quiet, almost noiseless adoption of an historic text that has been championed by the Left for more than a decade. On May 27th, MPs in the French Parliament's lower chamber, the National Assembly, voted for a proposed law enshrining the principle of an active right to die, along with an accompanying text on access to palliative care. The latter was passed unanimously by all 560 MPs who voted. The former, establishing assisted dying, was adopted by a large majority of 305 in favour, 199 against.
