France’s upper house is set to approve expanded palliative care but block assisted dying, raising tensions with MPs over end-of-life legislation.
After a week of fraught and emotionally charged debate, France’s Senate will vote on Wednesday on two bills dealing with end-of-life care.
While senators are expected to approve a widely supported plan to strengthen palliative care, their rejection of assisted dying is likely to return the political initiative to MPs in what remains one of the most sensitive societal reforms of the parliament.
Both texts will go to a formal vote at 4:30pm local time.
One, broadly consensual, aims to improve access to palliative care nationwide.
The other is far more controversial, addressing assisted suicide and euthanasia – practices the Senate has consistently refused to endorse.
French parliament adopts long-debated bill to legalise assisted dying
A bill hollowed out in the Senate
During debates, the conservative majority in the upper house, backed by centrists and led by Les Républicains leader Bruno Retailleau, mobilised forcefully to reshape the assisted dying bill. They succeeded in rallying enough support to rewrite it almost entirely.
The proposal, originally introduced by MP Olivier Falorni, had set out a tightly regulated framework for assisted dying and enjoyed broad backing in the National Assembly.
In the Senate, however, it has been stripped of its substance.
Several senators expressed discomfort at voting on what they described as a ‘ghost text’ – degraded, incoherent and largely devoid of meaning.
Critics on the left went further, warning that the amended version could be counterproductive by contradicting the Claeys–Léonetti law currently in force, which allows deep and continuous sedation until death in certain end-of-life situations.
Amendments adopted by the Senate now establish a ‘right to the best possible relief from pain and suffering’, while clearly stating that ‘no voluntary intervention shall be intended to cause death or assist in dying’.
'Right to die' activists on trial in France as lawmakers debate end of life bill
MPs poised to reclaim the initiative
For Falorni, the Senate’s stance reflects ‘an extremely conservative vision, far removed from the expectations of the French people’.
On the other side of the chamber, Les Républicains senator Christine Bonfanti-Dossat, rapporteur for the bill, defended what she called an ‘alternative political direction’.
While acknowledging the text is ‘not perfect’, she argued it was necessary to push back against what she sees as the National Assembly’s ‘extreme permissiveness’.
Centrist unease could prove decisive. Senator Olivier Henno said he was torn between voting in favour and abstaining, but warned he would regret ‘letting the National Assembly legislate on its own’.
With centrists divided and the left firmly opposed, the vote promises to be close.
If the Senate rejects the text outright, MPs will revert to the version they adopted on 16 February 2025 at second reading.
If it is approved, there is little doubt the Assembly will seek to reinstate its own compromise – legalising a tightly regulated form of assisted suicide and, in certain cases, euthanasia, even if those terms are not explicitly spelled out in the law.
The president of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, has said she is confident the reform could be definitively adopted ‘before the summer’. Delivering it would fulfil a key promise of Emmanuel Macron’s second term and bring France into line with countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada.
Meanwhile, the palliative care bill – largely overshadowed by the assisted dying row – is expected to pass smoothly.
It sets out a national strategy to expand provision and create dedicated palliative care and support centres across the country. Its adoption by the Senate on Wednesday is considered a foregone conclusion.
(with newswires)
