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........

© RT.com