The French Senate is debating a bill to legalise assisted suicide after having rejected an earlier version of the same legislation in January.

The proposal would allow someone with a terminal or incurable illness to request lethal medication, usually to administer themselves, although if they are not capable it can be administered by a medical professional, which is euthanasia.

Five conditions must be met: Legal adulthood, free and informed consent, an incurable illness with a life-threatening prognosis, suffering resistant to treatment, and stable residence in France to prevent “death tourism.” Elsewhere when euthanasia and assisted suicide are introduced, the number availing of the procedures almost always increases rapidly and the eligibility grounds expand.

Bishop Marc Aillet of Bayonne, Lescar, and Oloron sent a letter to his diocese, calling on Catholics to oppose the legislation, saying it is “extremely serious” and seeks to “abolish the prohibition against killing upon which life in society has always rested.”

“[T]he final adoption of this bill could only encourage the poorest or most vulnerable patients who lack access to palliative care, or so-called ‘eligible’ individuals who fear being a burden on their families, the medical community, or the social security budget, to resort to assisted suicide or euthanasia,” he said.