The end of life and the law: French and German approaches

This research project proposes to analyze the end of life from two complementary lines of research:

(1) The first axis will consist of a comparative law study. This will involve examining, among European countries (notably Germany, France), the divergences and/or convergences between legislation and jurisprudence relating to the end of life.

(2) This research project will be based on a comparative law study

(2) The second axis will propose to broaden the scope of analysis of this study to political science, sociology, ethics and medicine.

Insofar as these researchers are mostly - but not always exclusively - jurists, the main research effort will be devoted to the first axis. The second is no less essential. It will enable us to grasp the tensions and reciprocal influences between the legal and the extra-legal (the cultural, the political, the medical and the ethical). Responding to a scientific concern for comprehensiveness, this last multidisciplinary axis will be decisive for a global understanding of the end-of-life issue and for the formulation of reform proposals adapted to each particular case.

The complex notion of the end of life will be broken down into six categories: passive euthanasia, assisted suicide, refusal of vital treatment by the patient, palliative care, deep and continuous sedation until death, and the prohibition of unreasonable obstinacy. Each category will give rise to an analysis, specific and then comparative, drawing on the methodologies specific to the disciplines mentioned.

The aim will be to draw up a precise and comprehensive picture of the state of legislation, practices and debates relating to the end-of-life issue in two European countries, and to formulate appropriate proposals for reform.