French President Emmanuel Macron officially promulgated France’s controversial new assisted dying law on Wednesday morning.
The legislation, published through France’s Official Journal on August 19, contains 19 articles establishing the right to assisted dying for French nationals or long-term residents, under the terms and conditions established therein by the new law.
Le Monde reports the French government must now publish the necessary decrees for local healthcare workers can put the now-official law into practice.
To receive assisted dying in France, a French national or long-term resident must be of legal age, suffer from what the law describes as a “serious and incurable” illness in its terminal or advanced stage, and be capable of making an informed choice up until the last moment, among other conditions.
A protester holds a sign against euthanasia and assisted dying during a protest near the French National Assembly in Paris on July 15, 2026. French lawmakers have adopted a bill to establish a right to assisted dying for some adults suffering from an incurable condition. (Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP via Getty)
As per the law’s terms, an evaluation process conducted by a single physician, with input from other parties, will determine who is edible for assisted dying. A healthcare profesional may administer a lethal substance should a patient be physically unable to do so on their own.
The official promulgation of the assisted dying law comes after years of back-and-forth parliamentary debates and widespread condemnation from the French Catholic Church and other groups opposing to the practice. President Macron reiterated in July that the legalization of assisted dying in France was a “promise” of his administration.
France now other countries such as Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and Uruguay in the list of countries that has legalized assisted dying, among others.
While no less controversial, France’s assisted dying law has been described as less expansive than Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID).
Last week, France’s Constitutional Court ruled to upheld the text of the assisted dying law, affirming that no provision contained in the text stood in violation of the nation’s constitution.
The French top court, however, noted that some of the provisions needed further clarification — including the “conscience clause,” which allows healthcare professionals to refuse to take part in assisted dying procedures.
Per Le Monde, the court indicated that the clause must also apply to private and non-profit healthcare facilities who may object to performing said practice.
Such facilities may refuse to provided assisted dying “when such a procedure is manifestly contrary to the facility’s statutory mission o institutional ethos” as long as it is not the only facility capable of meeting “local needs.” Additionally, the French Supreme Court determined that pharmacists may also consciously object to the preparation of the lethal substance utilized in the process.
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