From Alex Schadenberg at the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition:
(On January 25th) the Senate in France defeated a bill to legalize euthanasia by a vote of 170 to 142.
The euthanasia bill was sponsored in the French Senate by Jean-Pierre Godefroy (Parti Socialiste), Alain Fouché (UMP) and François Autain and Guy Fischer (Parti communiste-Parti de gauche).
The bill would have allowed euthanasia for people with disabilities, those with chronic conditions and people who are defined as terminal.
Interestingly, no English-speaking news source has covered this story. As a bilingual Canadian, Alex pulled the news off of a French news source so we monolinguals could know about it. I’d bet there would be all kinds of English language coverage if the vote had gone the other way. Funny how that goes.
You can read the rest of Alex’s blog entry here. –Stephen Drake
Sometimes the French get it right. I’m 1/4 French Jewish (grandfather who I never met). I’ve heard good things re their health care system for people with disabilities, as well.