France’s legislature passes assisted-dying bill

“France’s National Assembly gave final approval Wednesday to a bill allowing adults with incurable illnesses to receive lethal medication, the culmination of years of debate over end-of-life care,” reports the Associated Press:

But the 291-241 vote in the lower house of parliament doesn’t mean the bill immediately becomes law. There will be a review to determine if it complies with the French Constitution.

The National Assembly approved the measure after backing it in three previous readings. French President Emmanuel Macron announced the legislation more than three years ago….

According to various estimates, assisted dying is available to around 300 million people worldwide, with euthanasia legal under certain conditions in some countries and assisted suicide allowed in others and in several U.S. states. France has an increasingly aging population, with growing numbers of patients in the country who require care for chronic illnesses.

France’s health insurance system is running a deficit of more than $10 billion, and France’s national debt is bigger than its economy. France’s public debt burden currently exceeds €3.5 trillion, which is about 116% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

France has lower debt service costs than the United Kingdom, despite having a larger national debt, partly because more of France’s debt consists of bonds issued when interest rates were low, such as during the pandemic. But if interest rates spike, France could face a debt crisis.

America also has a very big national debt, bigger than its economy, but America’s economy has tended to grow faster than France’s. Countries with rapid economic growth rates, like India, can sometimes manage to get away with substantial budget deficits, because their economy grows even faster than their national debt.

As America’s economic growth has slowed during the 21st century, running a big budget deficit has become a greater risk for America. Our national debt risks becoming a crisis in the 2030s, when social security spending will far exceed social security tax revenue, and interest on the national debt will spike.

The Cato Institute’s Downsizing Big Government web site has ideas on how to cut wasteful government spending, and thus reduce our budget deficit and America’s national debt.