French Greens Presidential Candidate Backs Legalizing Assisted Dying

PARIS (Sputnik) - Yannick Jadot, a presidential candidate of the French Greens, said Tuesday he would seek to decriminalize assisted suicide if he won the presidency in April's elections.

"Yes, because one should be able to choose the last moment of their life, which is death. Today the law does not allow to choose how your life ends," he told France Inter radio.

Jadot argued that many people in France were suffering without being able to legally end their life. He admitted that "nothing is simple" and that a decision on euthanasia was a difficult one.

Euthanasia is illegal in France, although terminally ill patients are allowed to choose to be sedated until they die of their ailment.

The government of the incumbent president, Emmanuel Macron, who is expected to announce his bid for reelection, has largely stayed out of the national debate on assisted dying.