The opinion of the National Consultative Ethics Committee in favor of the opening of medically assisted procreation for all women will stir public opinion. If the homosexual community, in particular, and the women who perform MAP abroad, applaud, others wonder about the family environment that is offered to these children.
The vast majority of CCNE is in favor of opening the PMA to everyone, but around ten members have expressed themselves in favor of a status quo.
The president of the National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE), Prof. Jean-François Delfraissy, warned that the opinion on medically assisted procreation (AMP) “would not be unanimous”. After 4 years of reflection, the working group has just voted in favor of opening the WAP to all women. A much awaited opinion by the LGBT community. At the 40e Pride march organized this Saturday, June 24, access to the AMP for lesbian couples was one of their main demands. He was also eagerly awaited because President Emmanuel Macron had said he was in favor of this evolution of the law during the campaign. As he had promised, he should follow CCNE’s advice.
But the extension of this right currently reserved for infertile heterosexual couples divides. According to a survey carried out by BVA for Drees (1), 6 out of 10 French people are in favor. CCNE is also divided. If the majority of the 39 members voted for an opening of the WAP to all women, 11 expressed themselves in favor of maintaining a status quo.
The arguments in favor of openness
The vast majority of CCNE members considered that there were 3 arguments justifying the opening of the AMP. “The technique is already authorized and does not pose an ethical problem,” describes Frédéric Worms, professor of contemporary French philosophy at the Ecole normale supérieure in Paris and one of the 3 reviewers of this opinion. In addition, there is a demand from women and we must take it into account ”.
The committee estimates, in fact, that between 2000 and 3000 French women crossed our borders to go to Belgium or Spain to reach it. “Conceiving a child in a homoparental context is a long-thought-out, concerted project which makes pregnancy a planned and desired event,” they argued.
“Finally, we felt that the child’s relationship to his origins and his filiation could be built even in these homoparental or single-parent families”, adds the philosopher, while specifying that the CCNE recommends the setting up of studies on this subject.
The “stop points”
Because the absence of a father figure was at the heart of the debates. On the side of the defenders of a status quo, we denounce “the institutionalization of families without a father,” explains Professor Frédérique Kuttenn, head of the department of endocrinology and reproductive diseases (Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière) and one of the reporters of the study.
A member of this divergent group, the reproduction specialist also raises the problem of the availability of gametes. “There are only 250 sperm donors in France. It is very difficult to meet the needs of heterosexual couples with a pathology of fertility. Will these couples be delayed in their project? Will societal demands take second place? She asks herself.
Faced with these difficulties, the members opposed to the opening of the PMA are worried about a possible questioning of the French donation based on altruism and gratuity. “Support for assisted reproduction for female couples and single people is not resolved either,” underlines Professor Kuttenn.
“Everyone recognizes that there are questions of feasibility. The French health system should not bear an additional cost and the question of reimbursement is not taboo. However, it is not the role of CCNE to think about it, ”replies Frédéric Worms.
The President of CCNE reminds that the conditions for opening artificial insemination with a donor (IAD) will be the subject of discussions in 2018 during the revision of the bioethics laws. A citizen consultation will also be organized.
Self-preservation and Surrogacy
On the other hand, a status quo was voted for the self-preservation of oocytes for personal convenience. CCNE members felt that offering this technique to young women “is difficult to defend”. They particularly insisted on the risks associated with ovarian stimulation and medical procedures. “We think we are in the prevention of infertility, while we are in the risk-taking,” said Professor Kuttenn. Seven members expressed their disagreement and requested the possibility of self-preservation beyond 35 years.
Only the ban on surrogacy united all CCNE members. In their opinion, they pointed to “the legal, economic, health and psychological violence exercised on surrogate mothers and on children who are the objects of commercial contracts”. They also demanded a strengthening of the means of prohibition at the national and international level.
(1) the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics of Social Ministries
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