[Is it necessary to legislate euthanasia?].

Abstract

There are no specific articles on the end of life in French law. Thus an act of euthanasia can be qualified as murder, murder with premeditation or non-assistance to a person in danger. Recent events and debates have raised the question of enacting new legislation to deal with this problem. Two contrary positions could be considered: either create a special offence or explicitly authorize acts of euthanasia. There are major objections to both these propositions. The first one would require taking account of various situations, --unbearable suffering, loss of dignity, and precise requests,--that would be impossible to specify in legislative terms. The second proposition would be open to the same objection; it would also derogate from the major principle of respect for the life of persons and thus risk setting a precedent that could be used in other circumstances to evade this principle. Finally, if a law were enacted to this effect, it would constitute a threat for the development of palliative care.