On January 18, the States General of Bioethics will open. Major public debates will take place in all French regions to discuss bioethical issues such as medically assisted procreation (MAP), or end-of-life management. In order to take the temperature, an Ifop survey has just been carried out for The cross and the European Bioethics Forum. The latter confirms the openness of the French population to all these developments.
“A groundswell”
1,010 people aged 18 and over responded to an online questionnaire. Today, 60% say they are in favor of assisted reproduction for female couples. In 1990, this figure was only 24%. Regarding the assisted reproduction for single women, this figure has also changed slightly, from 53% in 1990 to 57% in 2018. The Ethics Committee He also spoke in favor of these measures in June 2017.
In total, 64% of respondents approved the use of surrogate mothers, also called surrogacy (GPA). Among them, 46% agree to using surrogacy only for medical reasons, and 18% in any case. Regarding end-of-life management, 9 out of 10 people would like to see legalization euthanasia, assisted suicide, or both. Finally, on the subject of genetic modification of embryos, 80% are favorable if it is used to cure serious diseases before birth. Conversely, 78% are against it if the genetic modification is used to improve certain characteristics of the child.
The people who responded to this survey are very homogeneous. There is, of course, a greater reluctance to these changes on the part of older people, “but there is no major divide either between generations or according to political preferences. This confirms that it is a question of a groundswell ”, explains Jérôme Fourquet in La Croix, director of the Opinion department of Ifop.
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