France’s euthanasia bill not yet dead

It’s déjà vu. For a second time, the French Senate has struck down a proposed bill to legalize assisted suicide in France. But the fight is not over.  

Key Takeaways:

• The French National Assembly has passed a bill twice to advance legalization on assisted dying in France but both times was rejected by the highly-divided Senate.

• This week, two bills were debated; the one to advance assisted dying was rejected, while the one on palliative care passed.

• Macron is pressing for an assisted dying bill to be passed before summer recess in mid-July.

The Backstory:

The French National Assembly has passed a bill twice (once in May of 2025 and again in February of 2026) in the past year that would advance legalization on assisted dying in France. In both instances, the proposed bill was rejected by the Senate, which remains highly divided. 

The senators debated two bills this week — one on palliative care, which passed almost unanimously, and the other assisted suicide. On Monday evening, the higher chamber rejected article 2, a cornerstone to the legislation on euthanasia, effectively overturning the entire bill by a vote of 151 to 118. 

The bill would have allowed French adults with terminal or incurable illnesses to request and receive lethal medication to be self-administered or, by exception, administered by a medical professional if the patient was incapable of doing it themselves.

The bill contained a clause that would allow medical staff to refuse participation in assisted suicide procedures. The Senate also further restricted eligible patients to those with short-term life expectancy. 

The Details:

President Macron’s government is pushing lawmakers to pass the bill before the summer recess in mid-July. In the case of a blocked vote where the National Assembly and the Senate cannot find consensus, there is a possibility that the government can give the National Assembly the power to decide the matter and have the final say. 

However, Bruno Retailleau, head of France’s conservative party, Les Républicains (LR), is against such a fundamental law passing without a clear consensus and has called for a referendum. 

As reported by Lemonde, he said that the decision should be up to the French people to “decide on this very serious anthropological question. Such a fundamental text must benefit from a minimum of consensus.” 

Conservative senators were again joined by their socialist colleagues in rejecting the bill but, like last time, many socialist senators think the bill has become too restrictive, whereas many conservatives oppose euthanasia completely.

Sadly, however, the conservative party is split as well, with 68 voting for and 49 against.

Bishop Marc Aillet of Bayonne, Lescar, and Oloron appealed to his diocese to mobilize for a day of prayer and fasting and to oppose the legislation. “We must ask for the light of the Holy Spirit so that the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ remains at the heart of our laws and our civilization,” he said.

The Bottom Line:

The Senate passed a separate bill on Tuesday seeking to improve access to palliative care. The broad consensus on this legislation gives one hope that the French people will stand up for the Hippocratic Oath and protect a culture of life.

The executive government could still force a vote by the National Assembly, but the hope is that the French people can defend their dying citizens and the dignity of life via a referendum.