France has ordered life insurers to pay out to the families of those who consent to ‘assisted dying’, despite the risk of creating economic incentives that could pressurise vulnerable people into ending their lives.

A provision in new so-called ‘right to die’ laws, announced this week by Emmanuel Macron, stated that death insurance must cover policyholders who legally decide to end their own lives.

Crucially, the rule also applies to insurance policies taken out before the new law came into force.

This means insurers cannot use suicide exclusion clauses, which are common in many policies for the first 12 to 24 months, to refuse a payout after an assisted death.

France’s state council said the provision was to ensure that a patient’s decision to seek an assisted death had no financial consequences for the beneficiaries of their policy.

Opponents of the law, however, had warned that guaranteeing insurance payouts could give relatives a financial interest in a vulnerable person choosing assisted dying.

During the senate debate, critics warned of an “economic incentive to resort to assisted dying”. They cited the example of an elderly person who might be influenced by knowing their death would trigger a payout to their heirs.