Ethics Committee + ART: Convoluted and Non-consensual Announcement [Press Release]

By accepting that one can intentionally deprive a child from his father, the French National Consultative Ethics Committee (“CCNE”) seriously undermines children’s rights and the founding principles of French bioethics. 

Caroline Roux, Helpline Center Coordinator declares:  

« We are frequently faced with women who raise their child alone, due to accidental causes or painful situations. Our whole civil society gets together and contributes by offering specific support because we are aware that a father’s absence is a challenge to be faced, one that should be acknowledged and accompanied. How can the CCNE be so far detached from reality? Fatherless ART is double punishment for children: starting from the original mistreatment of purposefully depriving them of their biological origins, plus cutting them off from any paternal relationship. Furthermore, by allowing recourse to ART without being medically justified, we are on a slippery slope towards accepting public and individual claims of “the right to have a child”, including surrogacy for men which the CCNE has refused.”

 

Tugdual Derville, Alliance VITA’s General Delegate:

“The CCNE’s non-consensual position, presented in a convoluted manner, introduces a breach of equality between infants who are purposefully deprived of a father by the ART system, and the others…It is absurd for the CCNE to speak of women’s’ suffering in order to justify the painful discrimination sustained by children. Why make a mockery of children’s rights? On what grounds do women have the right to claim a child “without a father”?  The government should not concede to this form of ART which opens the door to surrogacy. Neither children nor women can be considered as objects of ownership.   

The French President’s attitude on this subject represents a dual test for us. From a political viewpoint, does Emmanuel Macron intend to launch a new major societal debate based on claims from a tiny minority, whereas the French expect him to address other multiple priorities? From an ethical viewpoint, will he endorse artificial conception of children, who will be deliberately deprived of a father, while so many children already suffer from the lack of this important directional influence in their lives?

At Alliance VITA, we are prepared to rally, even march in the streets with French people from all different political and philosophic viewpoints, on the basis of gathering the largest possible group, while putting aside other differences, because defending children’s rights, against the idea of “the right to have a child” is  imperative for integral and humane ecology.

A state’s legitimate purpose is to protect the weakest against the strongest, and constitutes a prerequisite for democracy. If it does not protect universal individual rights, democracy is a failure: in this case, for a child to be acknowledged by paternal and maternal biological parentage”.