Assisted dying on the brink of final vote: Archbishop Aveline speaks out, France at a crossroads

Context

We had followed the failure of the rejection motion on June 23, 2026, then the citizen mobilization in fifty cities. The final vote on the bill regarding end-of-life assistance is now imminent in the National Assembly. France is about to cross a threshold that no turning back will easily erase.

Facts

On June 24, 2026, the Archbishop of Marseille, Mgr Jean-Marc Aveline, President of the French Bishops' Conference, issued an unambiguous warning in Le Figaro: "Let us wake up, we cannot disguise giving death as an act of care." The statement is on par with the stakes. Meanwhile, the text contains a constitutive paradox: if doctors are excluded from the lethal act, it would be nurses or nursing assistants who carry it out—an inversion of the caregiving logic that even supporters of the text struggle to justify. Additionally, the documentary Anesthésia was released in theaters, bearing witness to the abuses observed in pioneering countries, while a citizen alert titled "

Doctrinal Analysis

The Catholic doctrine is unequivocal. John Paul II, in Evangelium Vitae (n. 65), states that "euthanasia is a grave violation of the law of God, as it is the deliberate and morally unacceptable killing of a human person." The Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 2277) specifies: "Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable." The argument of the "act of care" is precisely what Mgr Aveline denounces: it is a semantic distortion that Catholic moral tradition calls a sophism by euphemism.

Stakes for the Church and the Faithful

The immediate issue is that of the conscience clause: if the law passes, will Catholic healthcare workers be effectively and durably protected? The Belgian and Dutch experiences show that this protection erodes over time and with successive extensions of the scope of application. More profoundly, it is the very notion of care that is being redefined, with lasting consequences for the training of healthcare professionals and the image of Catholic institutions in France.

Critical Reading and Blind Spots

The paradox of excluding doctors from the lethal act reveals the insincerity of the text: it seeks to bypass the resistance of the medical profession without resolving the fundamental ethical contradiction. The major blind spot in this debate is the absence of any serious plan to develop palliative care, financially sacrificed for years in budgetary arbitrations. The comparison with the Netherlands—which performed euthanasia on a child under twelve for the first time in June 2026—is not rhetorical: it shows the inevitable trajectory of a logic that, once legalized, knows no stable limit.

To Reflect and Act

"Before you I have set life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life" (Dt 30:19). In practice: contact your representative before the final vote, support palliative care associations, and reread the declaration of the French Bishops' Conference on end-of-life assistance.