On October 4, the Court of Cassation went beyond the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECHR) judgment in the case involving the Mennesson couple. The French Court requested not to cancel the registration in France for American birth certificates where the female sponsor is designated as the “mother of intention”.
Caroline Roux, Alliance VITA’s Assistant General Delegate declares:
“Rendered in the midst of the bioethics bill debates, this decision is astonishing. It’s equivalent to authorizing surrogacy, even though it is still illegal in France. It is a serious attack on the human dignity of women and children. We demand that the government assume its responsibilities and cancel this jurisprudence by creating a law to clarify the total ban on surrogacy in France, a ban which should include cases imported from outside France. Judges are not appointed to draft laws; that is the legislators’ task. The government reasserted yesterday in the National Assembly its opposition to surrogacy. It’s a matter of social justice. Why then should Jean-Louis Touraine be given the statute of parliamentary committee chairman, and co-rapporteur for the law, whereas, again yesterday, he voted for a pro-surrogacy amendment? We demanded actions, and we are confronted with actions in contradiction with the opposition professed by the ruling authority. That is why we will be marching in the streets next Sunday, October 6, to defend the best interest of the child and his right not to be deliberately deprived of a father but also of a mother, and to stop claims for the commodification of the human body, of which women will be the first victims. “
