France’s bishops are strongly criticising a “radical choice” made by French lawmakers to legalise “assisted dying.”
A watershed vote by the National Assembly July 15 legalised assisted dying, including euthanasia and assisted suicide in certain cases.
Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille and president of the bishops’ conference, lamented that “members of parliament have enshrined in French law the possibility of causing death.”
“This choice breaks with the long tradition of care whose purpose is to alleviate suffering and accompany each person to the natural end of their life,” he said on behalf of the bishops.
The statement, signed by Archbishop Vincent Jordy of Tours and Bishop Benoît Bertrand of Pontoise, deputy presidents of the French bishops’ conference, called on Catholic healthcare institutions to “refraining from behavior that is clearly morally reprehensible, in accordance with the dignity of all human life.”
For the French bishops, “July 15, 2026, marks a serious turning point in the history of our country.”
This is the fourth time since May 2025 that French deputies have voted in favor of the bill legalising “assisted dying.” Senators have overwhelmingly rejected it on three occasions, and the percentage of deputies supporting the bill has dropped significantly since the first vote, but the decline was not sufficient to stop the bill from passing.
On July 15, 291 members of the National Assembly voted in favor, while 241 voted against, with 29 absentees.
The law authorises assisted dying and, in certain cases, allows a doctor or nurse to administer the lethal substance themselves, making euthanasia legal in France. The legislation now faces review by France’s Constitutional Council before it can take effect.
The French president warmly welcomed the National Assembly’s vote, which was presented as final, in a post on X just after the vote. Emmanuel Macron had openly supported this law. He had personally promised to legalise euthanasia before the end of his second five-year term.
“In 2022, I made a commitment to pave this path with the French people,” he said July 15. “That commitment has been fulfilled.”
The bishops openly lamented that President Macron had arbitrarily sided with the National Assembly’s decision, despite the numerous controversies surrounding this bill.
For the bishops, one of the greatest dangers of the law stems from the fact that the principle that death can constitute a medical response to suffering has now become part of the legal heritage of the country. The choice to die can then be asserted as a right that could be extended to others.
“Experience in other countries shows that the criteria for access to assisted dying always tend to broaden, to the detriment of palliative care,” they noted.