Euthanasia and disability: what does the UN criticize about the French bill?
Although the National Assembly adopted the bill on “the right to die with assistance” at first reading on May 27, 2025, debates on this bill to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide seemed to be on hold pending the Senate's review of the text next fall.
However, the debate was reignited in the middle of the summer, following a statement by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on the text.
Risk of “violation of the right to life”
In its letter addressed to the French authorities on June 23, the UN Committee requested clarifi-cation regarding the risk of “violation of the right to life of persons with disabilities” that this law would pose if it were adopted. The CRPD is particularly concerned about the eligibility criteria for “assisted dying,” which it believes convey “ableist perceptions,” i.e., prejudices or discrimi-nation against persons with disabilities.
More specifically, the Committee fears that the text is based “on the idea that ‘suffering’ is in-trinsic to disability” and that it therefore paves the way for a distorted choice (through a “false dichotomy”) on the part of persons with disabilities who would be considering euthanasia. In this letter, the CRPD also reiterates its previous recommendations, pointing out France's shortcomings in terms of supporting the independence of persons with disabilities and specific measures to prevent suicide among them.
Concerns regarding the offense of obstruction and the reflection period
Other elements of the bill raise concerns for the Committee, based on “credible” information provided by the many associations that have submitted contributions on this subject. These include the criminalization of persons who attempt to prevent a person from dying by euthanasia (obstruction offense), and the shortened two-day period between the person's request and their scheduled death.
Eligibility of persons with disabilities in the name of non-discrimination?
In its response communicated on August 27, the French government hides behind the fact that the text is still subject to change depending on parliamentary amendments, and that the princi-ple of non-discrimination requires that persons with disabilities not be excluded from “assistance in dying.” The French authorities are committed to guaranteeing “freedom of choice” and “free and informed consent” for persons with disabilities, including those with mental disor-ders.
Whatever the UN committee's response to these explanations, the questions raised about the impact of euthanasia and assisted suicide on the right to life of persons with disabilities will cer-tainly spark further debate when the text is examined by the Senate in the near future. These questions also echo the serious concerns expressed by the same UN committee regarding “medical assistance in dying” in Canada (EIB News 05/15/2025). In March 2025, the CRPD even asked the Canadian authorities to abandon the planned extension of the euthanasia law and to exclude disability as a “ground for approving medical assistance in dying.”
Sources : ONU-CRPD, Genethique, La Croix
