Should euthanasia be legalized ? A physician and member of the French national committee on ethics, Axel Kahn offers a profoundly humanistic reflexion based on his own experience. The debate over euthanasia is a recurrent one. In 2005 the Leonetti law was passed, allowing a patient recourse to means of easing his suffering, a rejection of prolongation of life by medical means, and the option of palliative care. And so French medicine ceased to drag its feet in comparison to other European countries in this crucial area by narrowing the legislative gap. For Professor Kahn, this law offers patients, their families, and care-giving personnel a framework within which they can resolve the painful question of how a life shall end. Media attention surrounding recent cases, often exploited by militants of « the right to die with dignity » has inspired Axel Kahn to pose the fundamental questions: is it right to take one very painful case and turn it into a sovereign “principle”, denying the fact that respect for life has always been a fundamental value? Have we thoroughly thought out all of the abuses that could result from legislation permitting euthanasia? For no one can guarantee that abuse would not occur, given our beleaguered hospitals where “we cannot continue to accept the burden of too many incurable diseases much longer”. The quest for constant consideration for people who are at the end of their lives remains a timely and more than legitimate one. But answers to the problem of euthanasia must be guided not by emotion but by the desire to arrive at a solution that encompasses the needs of both the individual and society.