France's National Assembly has definitively approved a landmark bill legalising assisted dying, voting 291 to 241 in a final reading that caps years of parliamentary wrangling and fulfils a second-term campaign pledge by President Emmanuel Macron.
The law permits adults of sound mind suffering from an incurable, life-threatening illness in an advanced or terminal stage to request a lethal substance, which the patient must self-administer unless physically unable, in which case a doctor or nurse may do so. Those with psychiatric or neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's are explicitly excluded. The Senate had rejected the text three times before the lower chamber exercised its final authority.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu intends to refer parts of the legislation to the Constitutional Council, which has up to sixty days to rule on its constitutionality before it can take effect. In 2025, at least 158 French citizens travelled to Belgium or Switzerland to seek assisted death.