French lawmakers have approved a bill that would legalize assisted dying, allowing doctors to facilitate the deaths of terminally ill patients in certain circumstances.
France’s National Assembly passed the measure in a 291-241 vote on Wednesday after years of debate.
The bill will next be referred to the country’s Constitutional Council, which will be given a month to rule on whether the legislation is in accordance with the French Constitution. It may only take effect after that review.
Under the bill, patients would be permitted to receive lethal medication at their request if they are French or living in France on a “stable and regular basis,” above the age of 18, able to express their free and informed choice, experiencing pain that is unbearable or resistant to treatment, and suffering from an incurable, life-threatening illness in an advanced stage. They would then be able to self-administer the substance, or, in cases in which they are physically unable to take the medication themselves, a doctor would be permitted to administer it.
French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to support assisted dying legislation during his 2022 re-election campaign.
“In 2022, I had made the commitment to open this path with the French people. With gravity, with humility, and in full respect for our democracy, that commitment has been honored,” Macron wrote on Wednesday, announcing the bill’s adoption. “On this issue as intimate as it is grave, which touches on life, suffering, and dignity, only one approach was possible: taking the time for listening, dialogue, and debate.”
“The national representation has risen to the occasion during these debates. This has been the longest debate since the 1980s,” said National Assembly President Yael Braun-Pivet.
If the bill is enacted, France will join several other countries around the world that have opted to legalize assisted dying, a term that encompasses both medically assisted suicide, which involves the patient taking lethal medication that was prescribed to them, and euthanasia, which involves a health care professional administering a lethal substance for a patient at their request.
More than 300 million people around the world are currently estimated to live in places with legal access to assisted dying.
Assisted dying legislation is also currently being debated in the United Kingdom, where in England and Wales a bill on the matter will be taken up by parliament in September after expiring at the end of its last session.
Here are the countries where euthanasia, assisted suicide, or both are currently legal.
Though assisted dying is still not permitted in most of the U.S., thirteen states and Washington, D.C., have legalized it in recent years.
Oregon was the first state to allow the practice with its landmark Death With Dignity Act, which was approved by voters in 1994 and went into effect three years later, legally authorizing physicians to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill adults who are mentally competent and have a live expectancy of six months or less.
Lawmakers in a number of other states have since looked to Oregon’s law as a blueprint, and a dozen more have opted to legalize assisted dying in some form in the ensuing decades.
Those states include Washington, Montana, Vermont, California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Jersey, Maine, New Mexico, Delaware, Illinois, and New York, as well as Washington, D.C. New York’s law does not take effect until August 5 of this year, while Illinois’ becomes operational on Sept. 12.
Canada
Assisted dying became legal in Canada in 2016 with the passage of the Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) law following a Supreme Court ruling that struck down prohibitions on the practice.
Under the 2016 law, euthanasia and assisted suicide were made available to mentally competent adults elgible for government-funded health care who have a serious and incurable illness making their natural death “reasonably foreseeable, are in an advanced state of irreversible decline, and are experiencing unbearable suffering. It has since been amended to remove the requirement of a “reasonable foreseeability of natural death” and to expand eligibility to those whose sole underlying condition is a mental illness. The latter change is set to take effect in March 2027.
Assisted dying is legal in all six states in Australia and in the Australian Capital Territory. It is illegal in the country’s Northern Territory.
Victoria was the first state to allow the practice, passing legislation to do so in 2017 that became operational in 2019.
New Zealand
Assisted dying is allowed in New Zealand under the End of Life Choice Act of 2019, which was approved by voters in 2020 and took effect on November 7, 2021.
Assisted suicide has been allowed in Switzerland since 1942. The country’s criminal code legally permits the practice for both residents and foreigners, provided that the person assisting in the death is not acting out of a “self-interested motive.” Euthanasia, however, remains illegal in the country.
The Netherlands
Assisted suicide and euthanasia are both allowed in the Netherlands. The law permitting the practices took effect in April 2002. The country is one of very few that allows for the assisted deaths of some minors.
Belgium allowed voluntary euthanasia with the 2002 Act on Euthanasia, which went into effect in September 2002.
A decade later, in 2014, it amended the law to permit minors to request and receive euthanasia under certain circumstances.
Luxembourg
Luxembourg legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide in March 2009 with the Law on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide.
Grand Duke Henri refused to sign the bill over moral objections after lawmakers passed it the year prior. But the parliament amended the country’s constitution to remove a clause that required his signature to approve laws, enabling the legislation to be enacted.
Assisted suicide is allowed in Italy under narrow circumstances, including when a person is on life support and is “afflicted by an incurable illness that gives rise to intolerable physical or psychological suffering,” under a 2019 ruling from the country’s Constitutional Court.
Euthanasia remains illegal in Italy.
Germany
Germany’s Constitutional Court overturned a ban on assisted suicide and recognized a constitutional right to a self-determined death. Euthanasia, however, is outlawed in the country.
Spain passed a law in March 2021 allowing assisted suicide and euthanasia, making it the fourth country in Europe to allow euthanasia, along with Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.
Portugal
The Portuguese parliament passed a measure to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in 2023, though it has not gone into effect amid ongoing court proceedings.
Assisted suicide became legal in Austria in 2022. Euthanasia remains illegal.
Colombia
Both assisted suicide and euthanasia are permitted in Colombia. The country’s Constitutional Court ruled to allow euthanasia in 1997. Decades later, in 2022, it decriminalized medically assisted suicide as well, making Colombia the first Latin American country to do so.
Colombia is also among the small number of countries that allow assisted dying for minors in some cases.
Ecuador became the second Latin American country to decriminalize euthanasia in 2024 with a ruling from its own Constitutional Court. Assisted suicide remains illegal in the country.
Uruguay
Uruguay enacted a law decriminalizing euthanasia in October 2025. Assisted suicide was not permitted under the law, however.
Cuba
Cuban lawmakers voted to authorize euthanasia in December 2023, but the change has yet to take effect as the Ministry of Public Health is in the process of drafting specific regulations..
The law did not expressly allow for assisted suicide.
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