French president Emmanuel Macron to support assisted suicide, 'aid in dying' bill: Reports

French president Emmanuel Macron plans to support legislation making it legal for terminally ill adults to take lethal medication, according to French newspapers La Croix and Libération.

The legislation would be the first of its kind in France, the Associated Press reported.

Macron said during one interview that only people aged 18 or older who can form their own views will be allowed to opt in to assisted suicide.

The bill excludes individuals suffering from severe psychiatric conditions and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, the AP reported.

Medical experts would have to approve the requests for assisted suicide, Paris-based international news outlet France 24 reported. Patients will then be prescribed a lethal substance they can administer themselves or with help from someone else.

Those who want to take the medication can do so at home, at a nursing home or at another healthcare facility, the Associated Press reported.

Macron called the bill “aid in dying … because it’s simple and humane,” and prefers this terminology over euthanasia or medically assisted suicide.

The bill needs to undergo a legislative process before it goes into effect. That process will begin in May. According to France 24, the bill likely won't go into effect before 2025.

France 24 spoke to one man who looks forward to the bill, Christophe Malsot.

"To be a prisoner in your own body is awful,” a narrator reads, translating the outlet’s interview with Malsot. “What's the point of waiting for months or years for your heart to stop, for your breathing to stop? I think we really need to help people to pass away with dignity.”

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Religious leaders react to French president’s support of assisted suicide bill

Religious leaders in France have long opposed legal euthanasia. In spring 2018, over 100 French bishops signed a statement speaking out against the act, according to The Pilot, the Archdiocese of Boston’s official newspaper.

According to the bishops, legalizing euthanasia would only serve to hurt society and pressure sick, vulnerable and elderly people to end their lives and lead to more "institutions specializing in death," the pilot reported.

They also claimed legalizing euthanasia would break one of the ten commandments: Thou shall not kill.

Macron said during his interviews that the bill will provide people with “a possible path, in a determined situation, with precise criteria, where the medical decision is playing its role.”

As an example, he noted that people with terminal cancer have previously traveled internationally to end their lives, according to the AP.

The outlet added that some individuals in France have traveled to countries such as Switzerland and Portugal. Euthanasia is also legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain under specific conditions, the AP reported.

Most recently, president of the Protestant Federation of France Christian Krieger told media outlets that the legalization of assisted suicide will be difficult to maintain.

"I am aware of how the law on this issue will progress: people who are outside the criteria for access to this measure will cry discrimination, and the criteria will inevitably widen," he said.

Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort of Reims, president of the French Bishops' Conference, spoke to La Croix and openly opposed the bill.

"A law like this, whatever its aim, will bend our whole health system towards death as a solution," he told the outlet.

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Follow her on Twitter at @SaleenMartin or email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: French president Emmanuel Macron to back 'aid in dying' legislation: Reports