Dear Editor,
We would like to expand on one point made in our earlier response(1): France’s criminalisation of self-harm publications.
The legislation criminalising self-harm publications can be found at Articles 223-13, 223-14 and 223-15 of the Code Pénal. Article 223-14 prohibits ‘propaganda or advertising … in favour of products, articles or methods recommended as means to procure one’s death’.(2,3.4) Article 223-15 deals with apportionment and attribution of liability. In our view, Article 223-14 may have the effect of criminalizing the publication of pro-self-harm publications (including pro-ana content) that actively promotes methods of killing oneself or methods of putting oneself in life threatening danger (as opposed to simply expressing one’s own lived experiences living with anorexia nervosa). The determinative factor is how the meaning of the pro-self-harm content is interpreted.
On another note, France has previously attempted to specifically criminalize pro-anorexia content, without much success. On 14 April 2015, the French National Assembly adopted a proposed law purporting to amend the Code de la santé publique (Article L 3232-11), to criminalize ‘[c]ausing a person to seek excessive leanness by encouraging prolonged food restrictions which result in exposing the person to life-threatening danger or indirectly compromising their health’ [“« Art. L. 3232-11. – Le fait de provoquer directement une personne à rechercher une maigreur excessive est réprimé par l’article 223-3 du code pénal. »”].(5,6)
Literature on the criminalization of self-harm publications have claimed this as “law”. However, contrary to what much of the literature on criminalisation of self-harm publications claim,(7,8,9,10) it appears that Article L 3232-11 was not passed by the senate, and was not made into law. Other provisions of the 14 April 2015 adopted text were passed by the senate and made into law in January 2016.(11) In our view, the confusion in the literature may have stemmed from a poor understanding of the French legal system, or from an assumption the French Senate would rubber-stamp Article L 3232-11.(10)
Despite the above, it is our view that that Articles 223-14 and 223-15 of the Code Pénal may have the effect of criminalizing the publication of pro-ana content that promotes methods of killing oneself or methods of putting oneself in life threatening danger (as opposed to simply expressing one’s own lived experiences living with anorexia nervosa). For example, the publication of a manual that provides instructions on how to starve to a point of life-threatening danger would be covered by Article 223-14.(12)
Jing Zhi Wong, JD
Graduate-at-Law, HBA Legal
Perth, Australia
[email protected]
Bing Huan Chuah, BSc
MD4 Student, University of Western Australia
Rural GP Placement Student, Midwest Aero Medical
1. Social media, self-harm, and suicide: we should be promoting research informed decision making about how and what to regulate. 11 January 2023. https://www.bmj.com/content/379/bmj.o2583/rr
2. Code Pénal. Article 223-14. https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/section_lc/LEGITEXT000006070719/LEG…
3. Anne Marie-Duguet, Medical Law in France (Wolter Kluwers, 2018) § 3.II.A.1.
4. Translation of Article 223-14 taken from: Penny Lewis, Assisted Dying and Legal Change (Oxford University Press, 2007) p 10.
5. National Assembly, Adopted Text No. 505 (Session Ordinaire de 2014-15, 14 April 2015) Article 5 quinquies A (nouveau). https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/14/ta/ta0505.asp
6. National Assembly, Amendment No. 1052. March 27, 2015. https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/14/amendements/2673/AN/1052.asp
7. Eg, Bromberg M, Halliwell C. ‘All About That Bass’ and Photoshopping a Model’ Waist: Introducing Body Law. The University of Notre-Dame Law Review 2016;18:1. https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&contex…
8. Fitzgerald T, Bromberg M. Should ‘Pro-Ana’ Websites Be Criminalised In Australia? 27 July 2017. https://www.pedestrian.tv/health/should-pro-ana-websites-be-criminalised…
9. Fitzgerald T, Bromberg M. Should ‘pro-ana’ websites be criminalised in Australia? 23 June 2017. https://theconversation.com/should-pro-ana-websites-be-criminalised-in-a…
10. Allen P, Sparks I. France cracks down on ‘pro-anorexia’ websites that encourage young women to keep their weight as low as possible. Daily Mail 3 April 2015. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3023026/France-cracks-pro-anore…. See especially, “Deputies in the National Assembly in Paris voted through the amendment to a law on public health and it is expected to be rubber-stamped by the Senate.”
11. Law n° 2016-41 of January 26, 2016. https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/loda/id/JORFTEXT000031912641.
12. By analogy, see TGI Paris 11 April 1995: JCP 1996 II 22729, quoted in Anne Marie-Duguet, Medical Law in France (Wolter Kluwers, 2018) § 3.II.A.1.
*responsibility for the texts are ours alone.
France’s Criminalisation of Self-Harm Publications