As the French parliament votes in favor of the legalization of euthanasia, the president’s decade in power solidifies its gloomy symbolism
After France became, in 2024, the first country on Earth to ‘enshrine’ abortion in its Constitution, French MPs have now passed a bill to legalize euthanasia.
The bill still needs to get the approval of the Senate, but at this stage it is probably a simple formality, as only some Catholic associations are protesting and well, you know, summer time is always a great time to pass controversial laws. With the usual French habit of twisting concepts in order to better market them, they coined euthanasia as “aide à mourir” (help to die), while the most famous French outlet Le Monde wrote about a “compassion law” whose goals is to “conciliate individual freedom and fraternity.” How characteristically French.
We won’t get here into religious considerations, even if they are absolutely understandable. There are plenty of reasons to wish to die and commit suicide: incurable diseases, chronic depressions, call of the void, metaphysical despair, genetic predisposition… and even political motives.
Some historical examples are absolutely fascinating. Everybody has seen (even if only thanks to the cover art of Rage Against The Machine’s first album) the picture of Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Duc who died by self-immolation, protesting against the persecution of Buddhists. Anxious Japanese writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa killed himself, leaving a suicide note where he wrote that he felt a “vague insecurity.” Years later, Yukio Mishima committed a spectacular “seppuku” as an act of political and aesthetical protest. Arthur Koestler killed himself together with his wife Cynthia because of sickness. Alan Watt’s death is a mystery, but everything points to a suicide that he carefully planned. We can go on and on.
But those acts require tremendous despair and physical courage. Let’s not forget that the ratio of men dying by suicide is three to four times higher than women, though suicide attempts are significantly higher among women. A failed attempt to end one’s own life is usually considered as a cry for help.
With this bill, Macron’s MPs are shaping a completely different understanding of despair and death. They say that the “patient” (one can be sure they think “client”) will get medical and psychological support. How generous those MPs are! Of course, we can add to it potential support from family members and religious representatives. But what we are witnessing here is the State taking charge of death, as it already took charge of birth with the abortion law. A radical move against nature.
One may argue that a person in absolute physical despair, who can’t even kill themselves, would logically be in favor of such a measure. That’s understandable. At least the temptation is understandable. I usually do not talk about myself in my articles, but I know that situation, as my father has been affected for 42 years now by a very harsh orphan disease. I have always been wondering not what I would do but how I would psychologically react if, when putting him to bed, he asked me to help him end his misery. A lot of people face this issue. A long time ago, it was actually quite usual for the family’s doctor to help his patient put an end to all this horror at home. But even if they agreed to help in such a radical way, they could of course be sent to prison. Because who knows, maybe it was a murder for inheritance or some other murky affair. But with euthanasia (sorry, ‘help to die’), who tells you that there won’t be any collusion, psychological manipulation or persuasion among all the actors in this tragic moment?
What’s happening is the State once again taking charge of one of the most crucial aspects of our lives. And of course, eventually it will be capital taking charge of it. The association of the state and companies. In Switzerland, where the process is already legal, euthanasia costs between €7,000 and €11,000. If you can make cash with anything, why wouldn’t you make some promoting voluntary death?
Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky wrote in his book Sculpting Time: “The allotted function of art is not, as is often assumed, to put across ideas, to propagate thoughts, to serve as an example. The aim of art is to prepare a person for death, to plough and harrow his soul, rendering it capable of turning to good.” What euthanasia offers is not a preparation for death; it’s to propagate a new look on the ultimate experience of life, and of course, it’s a bankable turnkey solution.
But what would you expect from these elites? Macron is a former banker. He does not have kids and is married to a mummy (in every sense of the word). Under him, the corpse of Simone Veil, the former health minister of France who legalized abortion, was transferred to the Panthéon. Under him was organized a tremendously ambiguous dark and decadent opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics. Under him, abortion was ‘enshrined’ in the Constitution. And apparently, his last strong political gesture as a president will be to make euthanasia legal. Macron is supposed to leave power in a few months. At this point, a walk through the Sahara desert with no water would seem shorter than those months. He’ll be remembered as a clown, but a clown with a very gloomy mask.
