In 2016 France created a new right-to-die law,
which put into explicit language
the end-of-life practices already used by of the medical profession.
French doctors are now officially authorized to use
any
combination
of the following medical methods of managing dying:
1. Increasing
pain-medication
with the recognition that the larger doses of drugs might
(as a side effect) shorten the process of dying.
But doctors may not give drugs
with the explicit purpose of hastening death.
2. Beginning
terminal sedation,
which will keep the patient completely unconscious
for what remains of the dying process.
3. Ending
all
medical treatments and life-supports.
In some cases, this will result in immediate death.
In other cases, the duration of dying will be somewhat longer,
which can be explained by the specific causes of death.
4. Giving
up
all food and water, however provided.
This medical method of managing dying
has a predictable duration of one or two weeks,
depending on the condition of the patient's body.
Law "Leonetti Claeys' No. 2016-87 of 2 February 2016
published in OJ No. 0028 of 3
February
2016
creating new rights for sick people at end of life
Notably absent is any use of gentle poison to bring
death.