To the French and French from Northern Europe,
Yesterday afternoon, as a member of Parliament, I voted in favour of the texts on palliative care and the right to end of life.
These are important votes, those votes that touch on the intimate and the history of each and everyone, on which one cannot vote without having a trembling finger.
That’s why I want to take the time to explain my choice. It is not for me to justify it but rather to explain my path on these subjects and what bases my reflection in my heart.
Like many of my colleagues, I wondered. I listened, discussed, doubted. I became interested in the subject long before he arrived in the Chamber, meeting associations such as the Association for the Right to Die with Dignity, exchanging views with doctors, talking with colleagues and relatives.
You, French from Northern Europe, I consulted you in my capacity as a member of parliament on this issue through a survey integrated into my newsletter of April. Three-quarters of you have declared themselves in favour of an evolution of the law so that everyone can decide on the conditions of his or her departure when neither medicine nor relatives can bring comfort or healing in the face of a serious and incurable disease, Advanced or terminal.
However, I know that this figure is not representative and that many have expressed reservations or doubts. I am not trying to convince on this subject; it is an intimate one. I simply want to reassure you: this text on end of life is accompanied by a text aimed at improving palliative care. The two can only go together, so that each patient can benefit from the best possible and personalized support.
This is, in my view, the prerequisite for any reflection on the right to choose the end of one’s life. It happens that, despite the progress of medicine and the extraordinary commitment of health professionals, some patients continue to suffer unbearably. Allowing these people to choose, consciously and with discernment, the way in which they wish to live their last moments is a sign of respect and dignity.
It is to ease their suffering and that of their families.
For these reasons, I have chosen to vote in favour of the right to aid in dying. We are only at the beginning of the parliamentary process of this text, which will certainly undergo changes, but today I am deeply convinced that it deserves this reflection and, whatever the intimate convictions of each one, peaceful and dignified debates as they have been so far. Vincent.
To find the main measures of these texts, click here.
