France’s Senate upper house on Wednesday rejected a government-backed draft law on assisted dying that had been billed as one of the country’s most important society changes in more than a decade.
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“The debate, which should have remained dignified and deeply humanist, has turned into a dogmatic and political battle,” Patrick Kanner, head of the Socialist Party in the Senate, said ahead of Wednesday’s vote.
“You can’t ask senators who are opposed to euthanasia and assisted suicide to vote for an article like” like the one proposed by the National Assembly, said centrist senator Loic Herve before the draft bill was killed off with 181 votes against and 122 in favour of the weakened text which made no mention of assisted dying.
The law will return next month to the National Assembly where the government could now allow the lower chamber to definitively pass the legislation without the Senate’s assent.
“The constitutional principle is that the assembly has the final say,” Laurent Panifous, the minister for relations with parliament, said after the vote.
President Emmanuel Macron had promised an assisted dying law when he was re-elected for a second term in 2022. He indicated there could be a referendum if there was a parliamentary blockage.
The change had been seen as one of the most important since France allowed same-sex marriages in 2012.
The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada have legalised assisted dying and a law is being debated by the British parliament.
The Senate did pass a law improving end-of-life care in a separate vote on legislation that had been agreed by both chambers.