PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ruth Horn
TI  - The ‘French exception’: the right to continuous deep sedation at the end of life
AID  - 10.1136/medethics-2017-104484
DP  - 2018 Mar 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 204--205
VI  - 44
IP  - 3
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/44/3/204.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/44/3/204.full
SO  - J Med Ethics2018 Mar 01; 44
AB  - In 2016, a law came into force in France granting terminally ill patients the right to continuous deep sedation (CDS) until death. This right was proposed as an alternative to euthanasia and presented as the ‘French response’ to problems at the end of life. The law draws a distinction between CDS and euthanasia and other forms of sympton control at the end of life. France is the first country in the world to legislate on CDS . This short report describes the particular context and underlying social values that led to this piece of legislation, and explores its meaning in the wider French context.