Bioethics bill: the Assembly once again validates the assisted reproduction for all

Published on : 06/09/2021 – 06:32

Opening up medically assisted procreation (ART) to all women has overcome an obstacle. The National Assembly voted again this flagship measure of the bioethics bill examined for new reading on Tuesday, June 8.

Hotly debated since Monday evening, this article 1 of the vast government project was adopted by 81 votes to 39, and 5 abstentions, several political groups being divided.

ART, which allows having a child using different medical techniques (artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, etc.), is currently reserved for heterosexual couples. Emmanuel Macron’s campaign promise, this PMA extended to lesbian couples and single women, supported by the majority and the left, will be reimbursed by Social Security.

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The Assembly must continue in the coming days the examination of the text, which will go on June 24 for the last time before the Senate with a right-wing majority, then the Assembly will have the last word on June 29, date set on Tuesday. This will be the end of a parliamentary journey that began in the fall of 2019.

Post-mortem ART rejected

Article 1 was the one on which the greatest number of amendments had been tabled, ie 400 out of nearly 1,600 in total.

A majority of the deputies The Republicans (LR) denounce the creation of “fatherless children” and fear an “inevitable” shift towards the authorization of surrogacy (surrogacy) in France. At the call of the Manif for All, opponents of the bill gathered like Monday on the outskirts of the Palais Bourbon with signs against “the eviction of the father” and a “government which persists”.

Despite divisions in the majority, MPs again rejected post-mortem ART, with gametes from a deceased spouse, or opening ART to transgender men.

Even rejection of egg donation in a couple of women (a technique known as ROPA), which some on the left and in the majority supported to allow “to link the two women to the unborn child”. The right and the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) see it as an “illusion of double motherhood” and a violation “of important ethical principles”.

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In the evening, the deputies continued the discussion of the bill, approving the self-preservation of gametes for future pregnancies, in the face of the decline in the age of maternity and the consequent risk of infertility.

Access to origins for adults born from an assisted reproduction with an adopted donor

The left of the left has criticized the fact that some private for-profit establishments will be able to offer self-preservation of oocytes if there is no public alternative in the departments.

Then the Assembly largely voted for the article on access to origins for adults born from an assisted reproduction with a donor. They will have access to “non-identifying data” (age, physical characteristics, etc.) of the donor and, if they wish, to his identity. In the future, to donate sperm, a man will have to accept that his identity may one day be revealed to the child born from this donation.

Secretary of State for Children Adrien Taquet praised “a major step forward” for these children and co-rapporteur Coralie Dubost a change in “state culture”.

Some in the majority would have liked to go further, with information from parents even before their child turns 18. On the contrary, others wanted locks, with the donor’s consent to provide his or her identity at the time of the child’s request, and not once and for all at the time of donation.

With AFP