France's National Assembly has passed the "assisted dying" law, a controversial piece of legislation in the country, after the Senate rejected it earlier and sent it back to the assembly, with 295 members voting in favor of the bill to 232.

In a post on the X platform after the vote, National Assembly President Yael Bron Pivet said: "This vote is the culmination of many years of work and an in-depth public debate, conducted in a spirit of seriousness, respect and dignity." The bill has sparked widespread debate in France over how to regulate end-of-life patient assistance and has undergone a number of amendments since it was first introduced.

Strict legal controls and rights of medical staff

The bill provides that adults with serious and incurable illnesses, in advanced or final stages, are allowed to request the end of life under strict conditions and specific medical procedures.

The law also excludes cases associated with psychological suffering alone, so that the application for assisted dying is permitted only in cases of serious organic diseases that cause ongoing and uncontrollable pain.

According to the text, in cases where the patient is unable to perform the procedure himself, a doctor or nurse can take care of it, after meeting the required legal and medical conditions.

The law requires the applicant to be an adult, to have French citizenship or legal residence, and to undergo a medical evaluation by a specialized team that proves his or her health condition and the degree of progression of the disease.

The legislation also guarantees the right of health workers to refuse to participate in the procedure on ethical grounds, while obliging them to refer the patient to another medical body when needed.

According to French parliamentary sources, opponents of the bill are divided between those who believe that it has been weakened during the legislative process, and those who consider it still too lenient, but the members of the assembly in charge of drafting the law confirm that the final text has "reached a point of equilibrium", while rapporteur Philippe Vigier stresses that the bill enshrines new rights for patients, guarantees the freedom of professionals to abstain from participation, and establishes safety mechanisms to protect everyone, patients, medical staff and relatives.

A long road to recognition

In 2022, French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to introduce new legislation on the "end of life".

The bill was formally introduced in 2024, before being approved by the National Assembly in May 2025, but the Senate rejected the text on January 28, with 181 members voting against it and 122 in favor.

After a dispute between the chambers of the House, a joint committee of seven senators and seven deputies met to try to reach a consensus, but failed to do so, sending the bill back to the National Assembly.

With the text now re-adopted, it will be referred back to the Senate, and if the dispute between the two chambers continues, the National Assembly will eventually have the final say.

Following in the footsteps of other European countries

The passage of the "assisted dying" bill by the French National Assembly puts the country in a mini-European club that includes countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Spain, which have passed similar legislation regulating "euthanasia" or medically assisted suicide.

The French vote represents a radical social and cultural shift in a country whose traditional religious and medical institutions have long opposed the measure, citing the 2016 Claes-Leonet law that allowed "deep and continuous anesthesia" for terminally ill patients without intervening to end their lives.