A report commissioned by the French government has recommended that laws be changed in France to allow medically assisted suicide for terminally ill patients.

The report, prepared by a special commission on the end of life led by Didier Sicard, professor of medicine at the University Paris Descartes, was released on 18 December.1On the same day a new bill was introduced in the Belgian parliament to expand the current 10 year old euthanasia law to include children and patients with Alzheimer’s disease.2

The activity on the controversial issue comes just weeks after the publication of a major survey and of a …