Faced with the development and progress of assisted reproduction, Jacques Testart, one of the “fathers” of the first French test tube baby, Amandine, fears dangerous drifts for the human species.
“Do not take the air of demigods or even demiurges, where we have been only little wizards.” It is with this quote from Jean Rostand that the preface to Jacques Testart’s book begins. Thirty-six years after the first test tube baby, of which this biologist was one of the “fathers”, he today denounces the abuses of techniques of aid to medical procreation of which he was nevertheless one of the pioneers. Faced with the incessant progress of the sector and the over-medicalization of design, Jacques Testart therefore calls for caution. Even if he recognizes that France is still preserved from certain abuses already offered to couples “more or less” infertile in other countries, this precursor of in vitro fertilization is alarmed by the silent development of “soft eugenics. , invisible, consensual and democratic ”.
Do you think that, as some companies are already offering in the USA, France is also slowly moving towards the selective sorting of the perfect embryo?
Jacques Testart : I think France will be the last country to do this kind of thing, but it will do it anyway. There will be a ripple effect, there are already countries in Europe doing things that are prohibited in France. In England, for example, you can undergo IVF, without being sterile, to avoid having a squinty child. So I don’t see how we could resist all of this. France certainly has an ethics committee, legislation, so much the better, but I do not believe that all that will resist as soon as there are concrete things that will be available and in which people will see an advantage.
You denounce the massive development of assisted reproduction, should the current conditions for access to these techniques be tightened up?
Jacques Testart : Yes, we could put stricter rules. It is not normal that it increases so much. This can be seen very well in the reports that we give to the Biomedicine Agency. What we call idiopathic sterility, those where we do not understand anything, they represented about 5% of IVF, at the beginning of the development of the technique, and ten years ago it was 25% of couples . However, when it comes to people who have no children after 2 years, we could perhaps wait a little longer.
Who let the indications for IVF derive?
Jacques Testart : Not just the doctors. People are demanding and impatient, and they know that there are places of medical performance in ART centers and as soon as they have the slightest worry about having a baby, they go there. And when they do, they won’t escape until they have IVF.
Are you also questioning the full coverage by the security of the acts?
Jacques Testart : Yes, it is not normal for assisted reproduction to be 100%. There is no reason to pay for the teeth, for the glasses, which are necessary. If people paid maybe 30% of the real cost of the acts, I think that would limit a lot. Because free it encourages consumption.
What is your position regarding the opening of assisted reproduction to same-sex couples?
Jacques Testart : I am not a moralist, I have no opposition in principle. But it always comes down to artificial insemination and for me it is not a medical act. It is even rude to have transformed this banal act into a medical act. It is over-medicalization, if people took care of themselves, as American lesbians have done for 40 years who are self-inseminating, with (sperm) that we would find in the community in which we live. We could solve this problem from a technical point of view.
Several studies show that the quality of sperm deteriorates, according to you, within a few decades IVF could be essential for all. Is it still possible to reverse this phenomenon?
Jacques Testart : It’s very difficult. Because if we think of endocrine disruptors that are widespread everywhere, even if we eliminated them, within ten years, we would have persistent effects. They act at such low doses, and they have a very long lifespan, that it will last for generations. We are therefore now in a very serious system from the point of view of human fertility. This is why, I say it a bit like a joke, that we did well to invent fertilization with a single sperm when men become sterile. I believe that we have started for something that is now part of the evolution of our species.
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