The decisions mark both a victory and a setback for President Emmanuel Macron, who had championed both policies.<\/p>\n
France\u2019s Constitutional Council has upheld a law passed by parliament to legalise assisted dying<\/a> in specific circumstances, while striking down a separate bill that sought to ban under-15s<\/a> from using social media.<\/p>\n The council, France\u2019s highest constitutional authority, issued its rulings on Friday. The decisions mark both a victory and a setback for President Emmanuel Macron, who had championed both policies.<\/p>\n Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n France is set to join several European countries that have already legalised assisted dying, including Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg, among others.<\/p>\n \u201cThis decision marks the culmination of a long democratic and parliamentary effort, conducted with listening, respect, and rigour,\u201d Elisabeth Borne, MP and former French prime minister, said in a post on X about the assisted-dying decision.<\/p>\n \u201cI welcome this definitive validation of a text that guarantees everyone the freedom to choose, within a strict and protective framework.\u201d<\/p>\n The council upheld the law in its entirety while clarifying three provisions, including the so-called conscience clause, under which pharmacists may refuse to assist a patient in ending their life.<\/p>\n Private treatment centres can also refuse to participate in the procedure if it goes against their mission, and other centres can serve local needs. Lastly, in the case of protected patients, the opinion of the person responsible for their welfare must be taken into account.<\/p>\n French citizens and legal residents can request medical support in ending their lives under strict conditions. The legislation stipulates that the patient must be \u201csuffering from an incurable, life-threatening illness in an advanced or terminal phase\u201d, and that the illness must cause \u201cconstant physical or psychological suffering that is untreatable or unbearable\u201d. Lastly, the patient must exercise free and informed consent.<\/p>\n The French National Assembly passed the bill last month by a majority of 50, with 291 voting in favour and 241 against.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court struck down legislation banning under-15s from social media, citing freedom of expression.<\/p>\n \u201cBy prohibiting minors under the age of fifteen from accessing certain online services, the law inherently requires every person, even an adult, to prove their age before accessing them,\u201d the court said in its decision.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, by failing to specify the conditions and limits under which such proof must be provided, the legislature has not established the legal safeguards necessary to ensure compliance with these requirements,\u201d it added. The court also said that the law fails to safeguard people\u2019s privacy.<\/p>\n The bill was one of Macron\u2019s flagship policies and was passed by parliament last month.<\/p>\n It stipulated that everyone in France would have to verify their age to access social media sites, and it was supposed to come into effect in January 2027. Macron was eager for the bill to be passed before the presidential election next year.<\/p>\n After Friday\u2019s ruling, Macron asked Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu to work on a new \u201clegally robust draft\u201d of the legislation.<\/p>\n Last month, Amnesty International responded to the French parliament\u2019s decision to impose the social media ban on teens, urging lawmakers to focus their efforts on forcing companies to redesign their apps, including what it described as \u201caddictive features\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no doubt that regulating platforms to protect children is an imperative of our time. We commend states for taking social media harms seriously but rather than pursuing blanket bans, efforts should be on forcing platforms to abandon their reckless pursuit of profit to the detriment of human rights,\u201d Secretary General Agnes Callamard said.<\/p>\n \u201cBuilding safe platforms requires a robust response. To ensure platforms are spaces where children can access community, connection and knowledge in a healthy and safe way, governments should first focus on banning the features that drive harm, including engagement-based algorithms that Amnesty International\u2019s research has shown can draw children into rabbit holes of depressive and suicidal content.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The decisions mark both a victory and a setback for President Emmanuel Macron, who had championed both policies.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[125],"tags":[5816,1664,242,307,245,249,5327,316,7790,50,5309],"class_list":["post-189729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-emmanuel-macron","tag-belgium","tag-courts","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-germany","tag-health","tag-human-rights","tag-luxembourg","tag-news","tag-regulation"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117098561038838598","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}