French lower house pushes assisted suicide despite Senate’s repeated rejections 

French lawmakers are trying again to legalize assisted suicide, even after the country’s Senate rejected the idea twice this year.

The National Assembly, France’s lower house, voted 295-232 last week to approve an assisted suicide bill. Another 35 lawmakers did not vote yes or no.

Green Party lawmaker Danielle Simonnet said the life-ending legislation promotes “a major law of freedom.”

“Finally, we’re almost there,” she said before lawmakers approved the measure.

The matter now goes back to the Senate, which has already blocked it twice.

The move keeps alive a proposal that would let some adults with serious and incurable illnesses request drugs to end their lives.

As The Lion reported last month, French senators have rejected the assisted suicide part of the proposal, instead backing separate legislation to expand palliative care, which helps sick and dying people without helping them kill themselves.

That approach drew a sharp contrast between the two chambers. The Senate pushed for care for the suffering. The National Assembly pushed a legal path to death.

The bill would apply to adults who meet strict legal conditions. Patients generally would have to take the lethal drugs themselves. A doctor or nurse could give the drugs only if the patient could not do so physically.

The measure includes a conscience clause for medical workers who object to taking part. But objecting workers would still need to refer the patient to someone else, making the protection limited for doctors and nurses who believe assisted suicide violates the duty to heal.

Catholic leaders in France have urged lawmakers to reject the proposal and focus on care instead.

Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris warned lawmakers not to go down this road.

“Today, there is still time to renounce taking this path, which is not that of a fraternal future,” he said, according to Crux.

He added, “More than help to die, our society needs help to live.”

The Lion has reported on concerns that assisted suicide laws often begin with narrow limits but later expand, such as in Canada, where assisted suicide is now the fifth-leading cause of death. Canada legalized assisted suicide only a decade ago.