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French Lawmakers Propose Law To Ease End-Of-Life Suffering

The bill would also make “living wills” drafted by people who do not want to be kept alive artificially when they are too ill to decide, legally binding on doctors rather than merely consultative as they are now.

Euthanasia is illegal in France but Francois Hollande pledged in his 2012 presidential campaign to look into an issue that divides a country where heart-wrenching end-of-life stories continue to make headlines.

A 2005 French law already legalizes passive euthanasia, where a person causes death by withholding or withdrawing treatment that is necessary to maintain life.

But the proposals go a step further, allowing doctors to couple this with “deep and continuous sedation” for terminally-ill patients who are conscious and whose treatment is not working or for those who decide to stop taking medication.
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