2023-09-07 04:00:33
Lhe debate on active assistance in dying often comes up against the question: is it care? When we re-read the definitions of “care” in the various dictionaries (Larousse and Le Robert, to name a few), we find a multitude of terms, ranging from“actions by which one preserves and restores health” has “attention, thoughtfulness, solicitude”, with even, in Le Robert, the word “cure” appearing in the definition of “cure”. If we were to speak of care only in the event of recovery, the association of words ” care “ et “palliatives” would be an oxymoron. However, no one questions the value of the care offered by doctors who have specialized in this medical practice. So who defines what is or is not a ” care “ ? The legislator ? Medicine ? The patient ?
The legislator intervened on several occasions to specify what is not care. In 2005, with the Leonetti law, and in 2016, with the Claeys-Leonetti law, he reminded doctors that beyond a certain limit their medical acts, even carried out with the best intentions in the world, no longer fall under in the field of care but“therapeutic relentlessness”. The legislator also intervened in 2002, with the Kouchner law, to affirm that the patient has the right, in certain circumstances, to refuse ” care “ that the doctor offers him when these prove to be too costly in terms of suffering. Over time, these so-called ” care “ have become of “false care”.
And the voluntary interruption of pregnancy, now legalized and medicalized, is it a treatment? The answer is obvious for those who believe that this gesture allows women to avoid the consequences of a clandestine interruption capable of jeopardizing their health, and even their life. But others maintain a contrary opinion. Thus, for the legislator, the notion of care can evolve over time: what he criminalized yesterday can become legal care.
A terribly murky notion
So is it up to the doctor to define what care is? In many circumstances, by restoring health to a patient suffering from a curable disease, the doctor provides what could be called “the ideal of care”. Simultaneously, it removes suffering and lengthens life. But, even in such circumstances, he can be wrong. After Doctor Fernand Lamaze introduced painless childbirth in France in 1951, he was twice brought before the council of the order of the doctors for this method. However, this was recognized as a treatment and reimbursed by Social Security five years later.
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