Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T05:42:26.270Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

physician assisted dying : A French Perspective - a new revolution?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2024

P. Courtet*
Affiliation:
University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Abstract

The debates on euthanasia and assisted suicide (EAS) are topical in Europe. The extension of EAS for psychiatric reasons, already legalized in some countries, raises ethical and clinical issues, given the proximity between suicidal patients and patients who request or have accessed EAS. How can ESA be reconciled with the promotion of suicide prevention, which kills nearly 10,000 people per year in France? We will raise here several key questions that deserve a clear answer before considering going further in the social debates: how to ensure the irreversibility of psychological suffering? how to ensure that patients requesting EAS have full decision-making capacity? how to judge therapeutic futility? It seems crucial to protect the most vulnerable patients by ensuring that psychiatry benefits from scientific progress and can offer new solutions to suffering patients.

Thes issues will be discussed viewing the proposed law on EAS in France, which is supposed to come in February 2024…

Disclosure of Interest

None Declared

Type
Abstract
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of European Psychiatric Association
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.