France's euthanasia law: A democratic sham and state nihilism, says editorial

France's President Emmanuel Macron is poised to grant the state the power to end lives, a move critics are decrying as a "democratic sham" and "state nihilism." This development, anticipated for mid-2026, comes 45 years after the abolition of the death penalty.

Critics, including the editorial writer Vincent Trémolet de Villers of Le Figaro, argue that a depleted government, a makeshift National Assembly, and an unpopular president are cynically, cowardly, and ideologically pushing this agenda. They frame the state's administration of death as a betrayal of the welfare state, moving towards what some call a "validist" state that deems certain individuals, such as the elderly, severely ill, or desperate, as "eligible" for death.

The editorial questions the purported progressivism of this stance, highlighting the oxymoron "killing is healing." It dismisses the idea of medical progress in an "irreversible method of shortening suffering." The piece also points to the inherent contradiction of having "suicidology units" within hospitals heroically striving to prevent suicides, while simultaneously facilitating state-administered death.