Splitting the end-of-life bill into two texts, on palliative care and on active assistance in dying, as confirmed by Prime Minister François Bayrou, is "a mistake", said the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, on Tuesday.
"I think it's a mistake," she said on BFMTV-RMC, calling for no "procrastination" on this issue.
"We must not distinguish" two texts "because they are often the same people," she explained, "we cannot know when we may be confronted with this very painful situation what we will wish at that moment."
"This is a debate that must be understood in its entirety," she insisted, "what I don't want is for us to procrastinate."
Yaël Braun-Pivet, who signed a platform on Monday by more than 200 socialists and Macronists urging the Prime Minister not to split the text, recalled that "the French have said throughout their studies that they are extremely in favour of opening up this new right".
But on Monday evening, François Bayrou, who is reluctant to actively assist in dying, repeated that he wanted "two separate texts." "Palliative care, for me it is not a right, it is a duty," the Prime Minister declared on LCI, describing assisted dying as a "debate of conscience."
"People who are at the end of their life must be able to be offered comprehensive support (which) will obviously include the possibility of palliative care, the possibility of having recourse to active assistance in dying," Yaël Braun-Pivet replied.
Splitting this framework amounts to “dividing people and especially paths,” she said, advocating “flexibility.”
The end-of-life bill was being examined by the National Assembly in June and was abruptly interrupted by the dissolution.
The government does not intend to re-enter it into the parliamentary calendar before the adoption of the State and Social Security budgets.
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