French Senate puts a halt on country's assisted dying bill... for now

On January 21, the French Senate rejected some portions of the "right to die" draft law and amended other portions, effectively ending the effort to legalize assisted dying in France... for now. The French Assembly advanced the bill in May of 2025.

Just days prior to the Senate's actions, reports emerged that French Catholic bishops had released a somber warning about the law, which they claimed to be a direct assault on the dignity of vulnerable individuals.

Key Takeaways:

• Last year, French lawmakers began to advance a bill legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia.

• The Bishops' Conference of France condemned the legislation, calling for legislators to reject assisted death, and to instead look to improve palliative care.

• The bishops decried parts of the measure that called for jail time and fines for individuals who attempted to dissuade anyone from choosing assisted dying.

• On January 21, the bill was halted by actions taken in the Senate, which eliminated and amended parts of the bill. It must now return to the National Assembly.

The Details:

The original draft law

The bill was passed by France's lower house of Parliament by a vote of 305 to 199 on May 27, 2025.

The original draft of the bill allowed for any adult resident of France diagnosed with a serious, incurable illness that is life‑threatening, advanced, or in its terminal phase to obtain medical assistance in ending his or her life. A qualifying patient would have to have encountered continuous, unbearable physical or psychological suffering that could not be sufficiently alleviated; psychological distress on its own would allegedly not have been sufficient to meet the proposed criteria. ​

The French bishops declared that “we do not care for life by giving death,” adding that such a measure “threaten[s] the most fragile and undermine[s] the respect due to every human life." They urged French senators to oppose the proposed “end‑of‑life” law, which would have permitted euthanasia and assisted suicide for gravely ill adults under broad conditions.

The Senate steps in

Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition reported on January 22 that the day prior, the French Senate did ultimately halt the legislation, at least for a time.

Schadenberg quoted from a Euractiv news report, which stated:

... [T]he French Senate rejected Article 4 of the bill, which sought to define the conditions under which patients could access medical aid in dying. In an unusual alignment, conservatives and socialists voted together, albeit for sharply different reasons.

For senators from the conservative ranks, the version of this article... was seen as too permissive, particularly the provision allowing people suffering from incurable illnesses to obtain, at their request, a lethal substance prescribed by a doctor.

... The future of this central article remains uncertain, as it must now return to the National Assembly to be reworked – and adopted – before being sent back to the Senate....

Schadenberg also quoted from The European Conservative, which reported (emphases added):

On Tuesday, senators adopted Article 1 of the bill, incorporating “medical assistance in dying” into the public health code. But in contradiction to this first ominous vote, they rejected Article 4, which enshrined the principle of euthanasia and assisted suicide for patients “at the end of life,” by 144 votes to 123....

Later that evening, an amendment proposed by Les Républicains (LR) was adopted, completely rewriting Article 2 of the original bill and making it impossible to introduce euthanasia in France. The article now says,

"Everyone has the right to the best possible relief from pain and suffering. Everyone is entitled to this right until their death, without any voluntary intervention intended to cause death."

Anne Chain-Larché, Vice-President of the Senate, who initiated this amendment, defended it by stating that she rejected a society in which the administration of a lethal substance could be considered ‘care.’...

Once this key amendment was adopted, the senators proceeded to methodically rewrite a whole set of provisions in the bill. Aware that the text will be returned to the National Assembly for review, the senators added additional safeguards, such as the collective conscience clause requested by religious institutions.

Contentious elements

• Penalty for “obstructing aid‑in‑dying” was crafted to mirror the country’s existing sanctions for obstructing abortion access and would have penalized individuals who hindered or tried to convince a patient not to choose death with up to two years of jail time and a fine of 30,000 euros (about $35,000).

• Failure to protect the right of institutions to act according to conscience was a concern, and key French Catholic leaders and religious representatives believed the bill could compel a Catholic hospital to permit an external physician to administer a lethal injection.

Catholic healthcare providers felt these elements — which were done away with in the Senate — could be weaponized against hospitals and facilities that decline to participate in deliberately terminating patients’ lives.​

The European Conservative noted in particular, "The offence of obstruction of euthanasia (which could have been punishable with up to two years in prison and a hefty fine) was dropped from the bill, despite the government’s support."

The outlet also added that once the bill is sent back to the Assembly, "it will probably be completely rewritten—this time in a pro-euthanasia direction, sparking new battles," as French President Emmanuel Macron "had already anticipated that such a deadlock might occur, and raised the possibility of a referendum in the event of a 'stalemate' in parliament."

Need for palliative care goes unmet

The French bishops stated that “palliative care is the only truly effective response to the difficult situations of the end of life” and that “it almost always leads to the disappearance of requests to die among terminally ill patients.”

At the same time, they highlighted a the fact that “nearly a quarter of palliative care needs go unmet” across France. “... [T]he existing law is insufficiently enforced and access to palliative care remains highly unequal across the country,” the bishops wrote.

On January 15, Emmanuel Hirsch, a professor emeritus of medical ethics and member of the Academy of Medicine, told RCF Radio Notre Dame, “In the Social Security financing bill, there is not a single line devoted to palliative care, even though it has been said that this is an absolute priority."

The Bottom Line:

France, which legalized abortion and has taken steps toward state‑sanctioned death for the sick and elderly, is already experiencing demographic decline, with recent figures finding that yearly deaths have surpassed births for the first time since World War II.

If euthanasia is normalized in the future as regular medical practice, safeguards will eventually be undermined, eligibility criteria broadened, and pressure increased on vulnerable people to “choose” this so-called “compassionate exit” from life — just as has happened in other countries that have legalized the practice. 

The pro-death push of France's president and other lawmakers is alarming in many ways, and is likely to continue.