The French Government is proceeding with a citizens’ convention on whether to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide, despite objections near and far.

The issue is contentious, and Pope Francis himself denounced Emmanuel Macron’s initiative last week before holding private talks with the president in Rome on Sunday.

Macron wants reform of French law, which allows doctors to give terminally ill patients enough sedatives to lose consciousness, but not to prescribe or administer lethal drugs.

Although opinion polls show that about 90 per cent of French people are in favour of authorising assisted suicide for terminally ill people, Macron is wary. He has said he does not believe the polls, and is reported to be concerned about the potential to upset Catholic groups vehemently opposed to the idea. The Pope told a delegation of French politicians last week: “You can’t ask carers to kill their patients.”

Macron said he had spoken to the Pope about the issue when visiting Rome on Sunday, “telling him that I don’t like the word euthanasia”.