French citizens denied a referendum on euthanasia

The French Constitutional Council has rejected a petition for a referendum on euthanasia in France, thus denying the French people a direct vote on the matter. The National Assembly is currently reviewing the bill for a third time before sending it to the Senate for approval on June 30. A final vote is expected on July 15. 

Key Takeaways:

• French legislators have been debating an assisted suicide bill over the past year.

• The bill has failed to pass the Senate twice.

• Those who oppose the bill have called for a referendum, allowing French voters the ability to have a say.

• The French Constitutional Council has denied a referendum, denying French citizens this opportunity.

The Backstory:

For the past year, French lawmakers have debated a controversial bill legalizing “assisted dying” or euthanasia, with the National Assembly passing the bill twice and the Senate rejecting it both times. 

Consensus on such a life-or-death matter has been unachievable. On June 2, members of parliament and senators held a joint committee meeting to try to reach agreement on the final version of the bill but were not successful. 

In the case of a blocked bill, the French executive government has the power to give the National Assembly the final vote to definitively decide the issue. 

The proposed bill is currently in its third review with the National Assembly from June 22 to June 26. The Senate will then review the text, but is expected to reject it as it has in the past.

Either way, the National Assembly will have the power to legalize euthanasia with the final vote on July 15.

The Details:

Opponents wanted to give the French people a chance to vote on such a key social policy that could profoundly change French culture.

Senator Francis Szpiner, from France’s conservative party, Les Républicains, led the referendum initiative along with nearly 200 parliamentarians.

As reported by Infovaticana, the goal of the referendum was not a vote for or against legalizing euthanasia. Rather, the referendum’s aim was to prevent the act of actively ending a patient’s life from being considered as “treatment,” “therapy,” or “care.” 

But, on June 17, the Constitutional Council, France’s highest constitutional authority, rejected the bid for a referendum, on the grounds that “assisted dying” was a societal issue that did not fall within the scope of Article 11 of the Constitution. 

Les sages or “the wise,” as members of the Constitutional Council are called, noted that a referendum was only applicable to “reforms relating to the nation’s economic, social or environmental policy and the public services that contribute to it.”

Since euthanasia has not yet been legalized, the Council determined that there was no law to be amended.

Senator Szpiner and his cosponsors disagree with “the wise” and certainly considered the question of euthanasia to fall under the umbrella of a “social policy.” 

The Bottom Line: 

The fight to protect France’s culture of life is not over. 

French bishops have called for a novena from June 21 to June 29, asking the French people to pray that legislators reject the culture of death by upholding the Hippocratic Oath of defending and accompanying life until its natural end. 

Protests against the bill also are happening around the country, showing that many French people view their elderly not as cumbersome but as unique human lives with dignity and value.