On Wednesday the French Senate adopted legislation allowing terminally ill patients or those with no hope of recovery the right to refuse treatment in favour of death. It has been a very alarming development, especially since it follows the approval of the pro-euthanasia Mental Capacity Bill by the British Parliament on 5th April. Pro-lifers’ are greatly concerned that the move will lead to a decline in medical ethics across Europe, and that simply the fact that this law has been made evidences this.

Under the legislation, French doctors are allowed to stop giving medical assistance when it "has no effect other than maintaining life artificially". In addition, it opens the way for families to request the withdrawal of life support for unconscious patients. It also allows the administration of pain-killers to patients who have chosen to end their treatment, even if these drugs might hasten death, according to BBC News.

The new French law is very similar to the Mental Capacity Bill in the UK, which allows mentally incapacitated patients who are terminally ill or dying to appoint a relative or friend to make future decisions on their behalf. It also allows people with no-one to act for them to leave instructions regarding their future treatment. Both laws in UK and France are likely to trigger greater fears of "legalising euthanasia by neglect".

The French Health Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy was quoted by AFP news agency, "As long as I am health minister, I will reject euthanasia."

"The ban on giving death remains," Douste-Blazy added. "Allowing death is not the same as giving death."

According to the law, doctors are still not allowed to act to end a patient's life if there is no reasonable hope of recovery, even at the patient's request.

New York Times reported that the French Senate has started to formulate legislation in the wake of the uprising practice related to euthanasia in the hospitals. In September 2003, 22-year-old Vincent Humbert, who became deaf, mute and paralysed after a serious traffic accident, died after his request to end his life. His mother allegedly gave him a deadly dose of sedatives that induced a coma, and doctors then cut his life support. However, the doctor involved was later put under investigation and could lead to a murder charge.

Medical professionals worry that the ambiguity of the law may put doctors at risk of being considered as murderers or being trapped in an ethical dilemma because of their own conscience.

"We had to have a law that respects not only the wishes of the patients but protects the doctor who follows the patient to the end of life," Michel Ducloux, president of France's National Council of Doctors said to the New York Times. "This was an enormous problem, especially for anesthesiologists whose efforts could otherwise be considered premeditated murder."

The conservative government, the opposition Socialists and the Roman Catholic Church are all in support of the new legislation. Opinion polls had suggested that there was 80% support for a change in the laws regulating euthanasia in France, BBC News reported.

Monsignor Jean-Pierre Ricard, president of the French Bishops Conference, in response to the new legislation, issued a statement calling for medical practitioners to establish an additional code of best practices for end-of-life issues to avoid unethical interpretations of the law, according to the New York Times.