PARIS, April 14 (UPI) -- Terminally ill patients in France may now choose to die by refusing treatment, but euthanasia will remain illegal in the largely Roman Catholic country.
The new law was approved by legislators Wednesday, the New York Times reported. It formalizes what has been the practice in French hospitals.
The law will allow families to end life support for patients in a coma and permit doctors to prescribe pain medication for terminally ill patients even if those drugs may hasten death.
However, it will not allow doctors to act to end a patient's life if there is no reasonable hope of recovery.
"We had to have a law that respects not only the wishes of the patients but protects the doctor who follows the patient to the end of life," said Michel Ducloux, president of France's National Council of Doctors.
