While the bioethics bill, which will be examined in September in the National Assembly, provides for the lifting of anonymity for gamete donors, Agnès Buzyn announced on Monday that a transition period would be necessary in order to avoid a shortage.
“We will not completely destroy the stock of gametes”. If the new bioethics law is passed, children conceived by medically assisted procreation (PMA) could know the identity of the gamete donor as soon as they come of age. However, the lifting of anonymity will not be done immediately: a transition period is necessary in order to avoid a shortage of donations, explained the Minister of Health, Agnès Buzyn, Monday August 26 on France Inter. This announcement comes as the special committee has just begun its hearings for the examination of the bioethics bill at the National Assembly in September.
The bill, which includes the opening of PMA to all women, provides that children born of a donation after the entry into force of the law can access their majority, if they wish, to the identity of the donor, his age or certain of his physical characteristics.
“In all cases, people taking this step will be accompanied”, promised the Minister of Health in Juneshortly before presenting his bill to the Council of Ministers.
A “pivotal date on which we will decide to change the system”
Thus, if he wants to donate his sperm, a man will now have to accept that his identity may one day be revealed to the child born of this donation. If the man refuses, he will not be able to donate his gametes. But the donation itself will remain anonymous. Thus, couples or single women will not be able to choose the donor. In the same logic, the latter will not be able to choose to whom he gives.
But for the time being, “the stock of gametes will continue to be used until we constitute another stock of gametes which will meet the new requirements, that is to say that the donor has given his consent to be able to be recontacted by the young person at the age of 18”, detailed Agnès Buzyn. And to specify: “There will be by decree a pivot date on which we will decide to change the system”. Before that, there will be no lifting of anonymity.
150,000 assisted reproduction attempts per year
According to Agnès Buzyn, approximately 150,000 assisted reproduction attempts take place every year. The latter give rise to 25,000 births each year, of which approximately one thousand are from a third-party donor. Most heterosexual couples, however, prefer to perform ART with their own gametes. The opening of the PMA to all women should increase by 2,000 the recourses carried out each year, according to the estimates of the Minister of Health.
In addition to this subject, the bioethics bill also plans to authorize, in a supervised manner, a woman to freeze her oocytes or a man his sperm, except for medical reasons. In addition, the text also aims to reduce authorization requests in the context of research on embryonic stem cells.
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