Gathered in Paris at the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (Cese) for their 7th weekend of work – which will have nine in total – the 184 participants in this participatory democracy system overwhelmingly approved 67 proposals in this direction, specified the Citizens’ Convention in a press release.
In total, “97% of voters felt that the current framework needs to be improved, regardless of their opinion on active assistance in dying‘”we added from the same source.
Among other proposals, participating citizens suggest enshrining in law a “enforceable right to end-of-life support and palliative care” and to release the necessary budgets for this on the principle of “whatever it takes”. We should also fund research to better relieve pain, and develop support for the dying by psychologists, they suggest.
During a previous working session, on February 19, the Citizens’ Convention had pronounced itself by a majority in favor of changing the law to introduce “active assistance in dying”.
Whether this proposal is accepted or not, however, this does not detract from the need to improve palliative care, insisted Sunday during a press briefing four of the 184 participants.
Conclusions on April 2
“As soon as the patient emanates a request for active assistance in dying”, the first step in the response to him must revolve around palliative care, summarized Dominique, one of the participants – who did not give his last name. Currently, this is only the case in a third of the situations concerned, he lamented.
This issue of palliative care had already been discussed at length during previous working sessions, stressed the members of the Convention, some of whom had moreover publicly regretted that this point had not been highlighted in the reports of the works.
The Convention must still meet from March 17 to 19, then from March 31 to April 2, the date on which it will have to submit its conclusions to the government.
The executive, which is conducting its own consultations at the same time, has warned that it will probably not take up the conclusions of the citizens as they stand.
That question “matters to us but we have no control over this aspect“, Dominique commented on Sunday. But “citizens will be able to measure the gap between the richness of our proposals and what will ultimately be retained by the legislator”he observed.
