Apparently what comes naturally to the rest of us requires a government guarantee in France.

FRANCE PASSES LAW GRANTING 'RIGHT TO DIE'

In the early hours of Wednesday, France's upper-house Senate passed the "right to die" bill, which had already been approved by the lower-National Assembly.

Some left-wing senators had wanted the bill to allow "active assistance" to those wishing to die, but Health Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, a cardiologist by training, said: "As long as I am health minister, I will reject euthanasia."

Euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide is legal in the Netherlands and in Belgium. In Switzerland, a doctor can offer passive assistance to a terminally ill person by prescribing a fatal dose of a drug, but actively helping someone to die, as by giving a fatal injection, is illegal.

Euthanasia remains illegal in several European countries like Britain and Italy.

Conspicuously, this vote comes after the death of the great champion of life.

But the French, who are not up to the great challenges of living, are determined to die at their pleasure. In America, well, let's just say, we view life and its attendant challenges differently. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

Michael Schiavo nothwithstanding.