Health, Bruno Retailleau
End of life: Against the assisted dying bill, calls for a referendum (May 2026)
Direction of change: change of another kind, or uncertain direction, compared with current law.
The lever. Rights of patients at the end of life: assisted dying created by the act of 18 August 2026 (eligibility conditions, maintenance, extension or repeal), palliative care, advance directives. Direction rule: ↑ assisted dying more widely permitted.
« Donner le dernier mot aux députés, je pense que ce serait un passage en force […] Un texte aussi fondamental doit bénéficier d’un consensus, c’est la raison pour laquelle j’appuie fortement la perspective d’un référendum. Désormais, c’est aux Français de trancher cette question anthropologique très grave. »1Translation by the editorsGiving the last word to the MPs, I think that would be forcing it through […] Such a fundamental text must have consensus, which is why I strongly support the prospect of a referendum. From now on, it is for the French people to decide this very grave anthropological question.
Words of Bruno Retailleau, Public Sénat, intervention dans l’hémicycle du Sénat, 12 May 2026. Position taken from public statements, not from a written programme.
Encoding
No cost-schedule parameter for this position: see the costing for the reason.
Costing
Announced by the candidate
not announced
The cited source does not cost this measure.
Published costings
none
No external costing of this position recorded to date.
Our calculation
lever that cannot be costed
Lever with no coefficient in the cost schedule: the position is compared, not costed.
Current law, sources and limits of the cost schedule
Current law. Act no. 2026-794 of 18 August 2026 on the right to assistance in dying (finally adopted by the National Assembly on 15 July 2026, after three rejections by the Senate; declared constitutional with reservations by the Constitutional Council, decision no. 2026-910 DC of 14 August 2026; JO of 19 August 2026). It allows an adult, French or residing stably and lawfully in France, suffering from a serious and incurable condition that threatens life, at an advanced or terminal stage, with refractory or unbearable suffering, and able to express a free and informed wish, to use a lethal substance that they self-administer (or, if they cannot, administered by a doctor or a nurse). Its implementation depends on implementing decrees (procedure, review committee), which are awaited. Act no. 2026-404 of 26 May 2026 aiming to guarantee equal access for all to palliative care and support. The Claeys-Leonetti act of 2016 (continuous deep sedation until death, advance directives) remains in force.
Horizon. Not applicable.
Limits. Ethical question, with no direct static budgetary cost: cannot be costed. Only the resources for palliative care (ten-year strategy, law of 26 May 2026) could be, but no official amount has been checked here. Direction of positions: relative to the law of 18 August 2026, supporting the law as voted is status quo, repealing or restricting it a decrease, extending it (minors, advance directives, psychological suffering) an increase; a position predating the vote that calls for « légaliser » [“legalising”] assisted dying remains dated to its day. Implementing decrees: the press says they are expected (Caducée, 25 August 2026); a search on 13 October 2026 found none published, without exhaustive consultation of the Journal officiel.
- Légifrance, JORF du 19 août 2026, loi n° 2026-794 du 18 août 2026, 2026-08-19: « LOI n° 2026-794 du 18 août 2026 relative au droit à l'aide à mourir »
- Conseil constitutionnel, décision n° 2026-910 DC du 14 août 2026, Loi relative au droit à l'aide à mourir, 2026-08-14: « pour accéder à l'aide à mourir, une personne doit être âgée d'au moins dix-huit ans et être de nationalité française ou résider de façon stable et régulière en France. Selon son 3°, la personne doit également être atteinte d'une affection grave et incurable, quelle qu'en soit la cause, qui engage le pronostic vital, en phase avancée ou en phase terminale […] Sous les réserves énoncées ci-dessous, sont conformes à la Constitution »
- Légifrance, JORF du 27 mai 2026, loi n° 2026-404 du 26 mai 2026, 2026-05-27: « LOI n° 2026-404 du 26 mai 2026 visant à garantir l'égal accès de tous à l'accompagnement et aux soins palliatifs »
- Caducée, Aide à mourir, la loi est en vigueur mais le passage à la pratique reste inachevé, 2026-08-25: « plusieurs textes réglementaires manquent toujours à l’édifice »
How to read these amounts. These are static costs and revenues, with no feedback effect, over a full year: nothing on growth, employment or the revenue that economic activity would gain or lose. A higher net cost does not on its own make a worse policy, nor net savings a better one: each programme rests on an economic model (demand-led stimulus, lower compulsory levies, consolidation of the public accounts…) that the cost schedule does not settle. GDP itself measures a volume of activity, not well-being or the usefulness of what is produced. Economic models and feedback effects.
- Public Sénat, intervention dans l’hémicycle du Sénat, 12 May 2026. Words of Bruno Retailleau. Position taken from public statements, not from a written programme. Read the source (Public Sénat, intervention dans l’hémicycle du Sénat).
Contest this encoding (prefilled email; procedure and deadlines)