His brother, Michel Augustin Thouret (1748–1810), a physician, was a key opponent of the ideas of Franz Mesmer and a promoter of vaccination in France.

Thouret was elected deputy to the Estates-General by the third estate of Rouen, and was instrumental in composing the local cahiers de doléances.

He also advocated the suppression of the religious orders and of all ecclesiastical privileges, and actively contributed to the change of the judiciary and administrative system; in particular, he demanded the writing of a uniform civil code.

Article five of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was adopted on his initiative, but his most important efforts surrounded the process by which France was divided into départements though 1790.

He was included in the proscription of the Girondists, whose political opinions he shared, and was guillotined in Paris,[1] during the Reign of Terror, the same day as fellow Constitutional Committee member Isaac René Guy le Chapelier, and defense attorney for Louis XVI, Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes.