French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday that a bill on assisted dying will enter parliament in May.
The terms of the bill are strict, with the law covering only adults with full control of their judgment who are undergoing a life-threatening illness in the short to medium term and whose pain cannot be relieved.
Minors and patients with a psychiatric or neurodegenerative condition, including Alzheimer’s, will not be eligible.
A lethal substance will be prescribed for the patient if medical professionals approve. Medical experts have 15 days to approve the case, and the approval will be valid for three months, Macron said. Patients can also appeal a rejected request or ask another medical team.
French patients have previously had to travel abroad, including Belgium, if they sought to end their lives.
A law from 2005 legalized passive euthanasia, which can include taking a patient off life support.
A law from 2016 allows doctors to combine this with “deep and continuous sedation” for patients who are terminally ill and in pain.
Euthanasia, in which doctors administer lethal doses of drugs to patients dealing with an incurable condition, is currently illegal, as is assisted suicide, when patients take their own lives.
