The French Senate has rejected an assisted suicide bill for the third time, the latest chapter in France’s long-running parliamentary drama that will still likely result in the legislation being adopted.

On Tuesday, the French senators took just under two hours to vote in favor of a motion to reject the bill. The motion passed narrowly by 169 votes in favor, 164 against, and 11 abstentions. 

The bill will now return for the fourth time to France’s lower house, the National Assembly, which can be given the final decision to adopt the legislation regardless of the Senate’s disagreement.

The final reading of the text is scheduled for July 15.

During the discussion before the vote, Christine Bonfanti-Dossat, a member of the conservative Republicans, and one of the rapporteurs of the text, said parliament was at a “political impasse” and the months of debate have underlined the “the impossible dialogue between the two chambers.”

“Two irreconcilable conceptions of the end of life are in conflict,” she said. “On the one hand, there is the one defended by a majority of members of parliament for whom assisted suicide and euthanasia are established as a right widely accessible to patients in the ‘advanced stage’ of their illness.”

“On the other hand, there is the one we defended in committee: medical assistance in dying for patients whose life is at risk in the short term, which is more in line with the ethics we uphold,” she added.

Alain Milon, also a Republican, spoke scathingly about the proposed legislation. 

“Major challenges always begin with exceptions. Lifting the ban on killing under the pretext of giving patients the freedom to die and end their suffering is to abandon a fundamental principle upon which our society is built,” he said. 

“Under these circumstances,” he said, “we cannot allow the illusion that a parliamentary debate has taken place when the outcome is already predetermined.”

Over 1,800 amendments have been tabled to the text during the whole process. It is now up to Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to confirm that the National Assembly will have the final say, as Article 45 of French constitution allows. 

Catholic reaction

Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris recently issued a press release stating that “reason and fraternity cry out in favor of a priority and generous promotion of palliative care.”

“Today, there is still time to renounce taking this path, which is not that of a fraternal future,” he added, also reiterating that “more than help to die, our society needs help to live.”

Vincent Jordy, Archbishop of Tours and vice president of the country’s bishops’ conference, recently spoke to Crux Now about the bill, warning that not all things that are considered progress turn out to be.

“Over the past 150 years, we have developed industrial progress that is now turning against humanity and gradually making the earth uninhabitable. What once appeared to be progress is ultimately not as obviously beneficial as it seemed. But it took time to realize this,” he said.

“The same applies to moral life and societal choices. Some choices that may seem like solutions can ultimately produce harmful effects on society. It is therefore important to help our contemporaries exercise discernment so as not to be misled by a kind of ideology of progress,” he added.

In January, before the first debate in the Senate about the bill, the French bishops released a statement saying that “palliative care is the only truly effective response to the difficult situations of the end of life,” and that proper care “almost always leads to the disappearance of requests to die among terminally ill patients.”

“We do not care for life by giving death,” they added.