[Press Release] French Senators Reject Bioethics Bill: an Unprecedented Legislative Failure

In an unprecedented parliamentary fiasco, due to irreconcilable differences with the National Assembly, the French Senate rejected the bioethics bill at the end of the final reading.

The Senators had previously amended the text, only to see their work completely ignored by the National Assembly. This time they voiced their disagreement by refusing to re-examine the text, making it clear that they do not wish to waste their time and efforts just to have the Assembly unequivocally reject their positions once again.

The dividing lines have been drawn because of opposing viewpoints on the protection of the integrity of the human species and solidarity with the most vulnerable.

• One example is the issue of extending ART without medically diagnosed infertility. This measure is unfair and discriminatory for children since it would create a “right to have a child” even if it means depriving him of a father, or even of having any filiation in the case of a dual gamete donation.
• Respecting the integrity of the human species is also part of human ecology: maintaining the ban on the creation of human-animal chimeras and transgenic embryos would warn that red lines do exist and cannot be crossed with impunity.

The French are opposed to forcibly pushing through laws that cross ethical red lines. The majority are in favor of a precautionary principle in bioethics as shown by an IFOP* survey that Alliance VITA commissioned in June 2021.

Alliance VITA denounces the ideological push by the presidential majority party with the support of those on the left and the “ecologists” who seek to impose ultraliberal and transgressive research which manipulates living organisms without any precautions whatsoever. The Senators point out that there has been no real debate on the bill resulting in serious prejudicial discriminations for future generations. We have a right to demand political coherence from our politicians, hence an across-the-board ecological policy that includes respect for humanity. Is President Emmanuel Macron still able to rise to the situation and change the law to avoid forcefully pushing it through by force? The current situation is a far cry from the “calm debate” he originally promised.

Alliance VITA will again be carrying out a major campaign to inform the French public, who have been intentionally deceived by the focus on the so-called “ART for all”, of what is really at stake in the bioethics bill.

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* A recent IFOP survey carried out in June 2021 revealed that a significant number of French are basically unaware of the bioethics law content. The survey results reveals their wish to have the precautionary principle applied to bioethics.

75% of the people surveyed want to set limits on the research which threatens the integrity of the human species and to put a ban on manufacturing human/animal chimeras and genetic modifications of human embryos.