For Immediate Release
July 15, 2026
Contact: Meg Tully – mtully@apcoworldwide.com
New York, NY – Patients’ Rights Action Fund Executive Director, Matt Vallière, responded to the passage of assisted suicide law by the French National Assembly with the following statement:
“In the grip of political instability and an unprecedented financial crisis that could sink the nation, the French Assemblée Nationale, which has yet to pass a budget, has used a ramrod to bypass the Senate and legalize assisted suicide.”
“The French assisted suicide law will put the most vulnerable at risk of deadly harm and discrimination. We all know that ‘choice’ is a myth in the context of an unjust health care reality. End-of-life treatment options are already limited for millions of French residents, such as people constrained by poverty, disability discrimination, and other barriers to access. Adding this so-called ‘choice’ to a dysfunctional healthcare system run by an inept government on the brink of bankruptcy will inevitably push people toward cheaper, lethal options. There is no assurance that everyone will be able to choose treatment over suicide; no material assistance for families of limited means struggling to care for loved ones; no meaningful protection from abusive family members or caregivers; and now, a government financially motivated by crushing debt and rising inflation is poised to offer suicide as a solution while slashing the care packages and social services people need to live.”
“Wherever assisted suicide is made legal, it quickly becomes just another form of ‘treatment’ and, as such, will always be the cheapest option. The soon-to-be French assisted suicide law fails to protect anyone from the subtle pressure of treatment costs or feelings of being a burden. Autonomy requires that people have a range of options and are empowered to choose from among them. Yet in France, millions will have neither, opening the door to a new reign of terror and death for society’s most devalued and vulnerable groups.”
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