2022

• September 2022: End-of-life

The issue of the end of life has been regularly addressed in France for the past two decades: with Law No. 99-477 of 9 June 1999 aimed at guaranteeing the right to access to palliative care, and then Law No. 2016-87 of 2 February 2016 creating new rights for patients and people at the end of life (known as the Claeys-Leonetti Law).
It has gained importance in France over the last few years, first with the Falorni Report on the end-of-life and the proposed law giving the right to a free and chosen end of life, in April 2021.
Recently, the publication of a book denouncing the poor living conditions of elderly residents in private clinics and Ehpads (accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people) managed by the Orpea group has re-launched the debate (Victor Castanet, Les fossoyeurs, Fayard, 2022).
The National Consultative Ethics Committee for Life Sciences and Health, founded in 1983, recently published an opinion on Ethical issues relating to end-of-life situations.
Among other things, the committee said that "active assistance in dying" could be applied in France, but "under certain strict conditions". President Emmanuel Macron has announced a consultation with a view to a possible law by the end of 2023.
Several European countries have already legislated on end-of-life issues.

Further information:
– Press release of the Comité consultatif national d’éthique pour les sciences de la vie et la santé
– Comité consultatif national d’éthique pour les sciences de la vie et la santé, Avis 139 sur les questions éthiques relatives aux situations de fin de vie: autonomie et solidarité
– Olivier Falorni, Rapport fait au nom de la Commission des affaires sociales sur la proposition de loi donnant le droit à une fin de vie libre et choisie, April 2021
– Réforme, "Fin de vie en France, 20 ans de débat et de lois", September 2022

Anne-Laure Zwilling

• April 2022: Anti-religious Acts

The Report to the Prime Minister on anti-religious acts in France Rapport au Premier ministre sur les actes antireligieux en France (Isabelle Florennes, Ludovic Mendès) has just been published (March 2022).
See an article by Anne Lancien on this subject (December 2021).

• February 2022: Sexual abuse and the Roman Catholic Church - continued

Eight members of the Académie catholique (Catholic Academy) published a report in November 2021 criticising the report of the Commission indépendante sur les abus sexuels dans l’Église (Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church, CIASE) of October 2021. Founded in 2008 by French Catholic intellectuals, the Académie catholique de France aims to foster the meeting of academics attached to Catholicism and to promote their ideas.
The newspaper La Croix reports that several members of the Academy, including Mgr Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the French Bishops’ Conference, and Sister Véronique Margron, president of the Conférence des religieux et religieuses de France (Conference of Monks and Nuns of France), have announced their resignation following the publication of the disputed report by Le Figaro. Jean-Marc Sauvé, president of CIASE and himself a member of the Catholic Academy, expressed his "sadness" at the criticism.
In February 2022, Jean-Marc Sauvé published a detailed response to the criticisms of the Catholic Academy, including a response from the members of the commission, the conclusions of five recognised specialists in surveys and polls and a note from demographer François Héran, which confirm the relevance of the report’s findings and the recommendations made by CIASE.
The Roman Catholic Church continues to be troubled by the difficult issue of sexual abuse.

Anne-Laure Zwilling