Last night in France, MP’s from the “LREM” (La République En Marche) and “Modem” (Democrat movement) parties for the special bioethics committee, voted two amendments to allow private health companies to stock gametes for assisted reproductive techniques (ART).
This complete turnaround, in contradiction to the government’s recommendation, is a serious deviation from the principle of the non-commodification of the human body.
Tugdual Derville, Alliance VITA’s General Delegate and author of « Time for Mankind-For a Revolution in Human Ecology”, published by Plon, declares:
“Just as we warned President Macron, by eliminating the medical infertility criterion for ART, France will be dragged into the reproductive market. The government asserted that it would only be “nonprofit”, but this still places human reproduction, and especially women’s bodies, under national and technocratic control. And now the majority party goes even further by opening ART without infertility criterion to the liberal market.
The truth is that large-scale autopreservation of gametes is a time bomb. Women will be pressured at an even younger age, to donate or sell their oocytes in exchange for preserving them, with the illusive promise of an advanced age pregnancy by IVF, that is known to be dangerous and unreliable (75% failure rate). The only way to protect women’s intimacy and autonomy from the invasive reproductive business is by supporting natural reproduction, by preventing infertility and by providing healthcare to restore fertility. The procreation marketplace benefits those who are wealthy to the detriment of the poor, relying on technology to make maximum profits. The very last bioethics principle France could be proud of is about to be crushed: the non-commodification of the human body. This cannot be. There is cause for revolt!”
Alliance VITA is a member of the March for the Children movement, which will march in Paris on October 6th.
