Euthanasia: Progressive Victory in Sight as the Right Abandons the Battlefield
21st January 2026
The controversial French euthanasia bill was passed by the National Assembly in May 2025 and is currently being reviewed by the Senate. Despite being considered more conservative, the Senate has unexpectedly decided to dramatically speed up the debate. Two bills are currently on the table: one on euthanasia and active assistance in dying, and the other on the development of palliative care. In a shake-up of the schedule, the Senate has chosen to examine the first bill first for reasons of ‘priority,’ counting on the mobilisation of senators, while the second bill is unlikely to interest parliamentarians who will be eager to return to their constituencies in the run-up to the next municipal elections.
Anxiety is mounting among pro-life advocates at the prospect of the bill being definitively adopted. Its content would make France one of the most permissive countries in the world.
The March for Life demonstration, organised in Paris on Sunday, January 18th, highlighted the semantic fraud behind the bill: the text describes euthanasia and assisted suicide as “care,” creating an obligation for doctors, with terms deliberately chosen to mask the purpose of the act, which is to deliberately cause death.
Doctors used to take the Hippocratic Oath, the first provision was “Primum non nocere” (First, to do no harm.) Apparently that’s no longer the case.