Anonymity of Sperm Donations: Son Finds his Biological Father via Internet

by | January 19, 2018 | Medically Assisted Procreation

On January 15, 2018, Arthur Kermalvezen, a 34-year-old French man born by artificial insemination by donor, announced to the press that he had contact with his sperm donor father on Christmas Day, by using a genetic test performed in the US and a genealogical survey.
Having always been aware that he was conceived with artificial insemination by donor, and after years of unsuccessful research, last September Arthur Kermalvezen ordered a DNA test from the American Society of Human Genetics “23andMe”. By ordering a simple salivary test for $ 99 by Internet and using the company’s DNA Relatives program which compares the genomes of other test users, a common origin was identified with a Franco-British man.
This young man indicated which French region he came from, and eventually, Arthur K. found the address of his sperm donor father. “I was 80% sure of my investigation,” says Arthur. “I wrote him a letter telling him my story, but I preferred to ask his neighbors to give it to him since I didn’t know if his entourage was aware of his donation. I introduced myself: my name is Arthur, I’m 34 years old and I’ve always wondered who to thank for allowing me to be born.  After having conducted a long investigation “to be able to say thank you” and “ask why he decided to donate” he was contacted on December 25 by his sperm donor father. Arthur conducted this research along with 9 other young adults born from sperm donations, including his wife, Audrey Kermalvezen, a lawyer with a reputation for her legal battles to obtain access to one’s origins.
In France, there are regulations for artificial reproduction techniques. With the first bioethics law passed in 1994, the anonymity of gamete donation was guaranteed. Article 226-28-1 of the Penal Code states “To request testing of someone’s genetic characteristics outside the conditions laid down is punishable by a fine of 3750 €”. But, as Arthur K. says: although the principle of the anonymity of gamete donors may be stipulated by French law, “the reality of having access to one’s origins is a given fact today”.
By making this announcement just prior to the opening of the French National Consultations on Bioethics,  Arthur Kermalvezen, former spokesperson for the association Procréation Médicalement Anonyme (Medically anonymous reproduction) and his wife Audrey, also born by artificial insemination from a donor, hope to have an impact on the debates regarding the anonymity of gamete donation.
Jean-René Binet, Law Professor at the University of Rennes and a specialist on bioethics states: “the principle of absolute anonymity is an anomaly which ignores a child’s rights to know his origin. In Europe, several countries like France, that had originally opted for confidentiality have recently renounced “.
Alliance VITA’s General Delegate, Tugdual Derville declares:
“The nature of the debate on abolishing the anonymity for artificial reproduction has changed due to the development of mega-medical databases. The fact that a simple test can identify sperm donors renders the promise of anonymity a serious health and social scandal. Just at the opening of the National Bioethics Consultations, this announcement is a real bombshell. Abolishing anonymity is not only inescapable for the future; it is also retroactive, for past donors, who were deceived. But be forewarned, lifting the anonymity will lead to multiple imbroglios. It will not address the injustice which results from the confusion of ruptured filiations between several men and women for the same child”.

[Press Release] National Consultations on Bioethics in France: Alliance VITA’s Agenda

[Press Release] National Consultations on Bioethics in France: Alliance VITA’s Agenda

by | January 19, 2018 | Bioethics, Press Releases

Human procreation must not be regulated by ultra-liberal nor state-controlled markets. As the National Consultations on Bioethics opens in France, Alliance VITA warns of the risks involved if an ultra-liberal or state-controlled procreation market would be authorized.

Alliance VITA’s General Delegate, Tugdual Derville warns: “This market which threatens the humans has been fostered by industrializing reproduction techniques. Women and men are regarded as a workforce supposed to produce raw materials (such as oocytes, sperm, and uterus) to create babies on demand, and even “customized” babies“.

Alliance VITA is expert on bioethical issues and will remain actively involved throughout the Bioethics Consultations for all the issues currently being debated: (practicing manipulations, or genetic modifications on the human embryo, artificial intelligence, end-of-life, organ donations, eugenics and disabilities).VITA has been granted an official hearing at the French National Consultative Ethics Committee.

Herewith, Alliance VITA is launching 3 initiatives to invite the public to get involved in the debate on these issues:

  • Organizing a national petition to be sent to the French President, protesting against the rapid expansion of the ultra-liberal procreation market and the emergence of a state-owned industry of human reproduction and human body products.
  • Dedicating a website throughout this time frame to follow, analyze, and comment on the various stages of the bioethics consultations. Key topics which are too often overlooked in the discussion will be proposed, especially those involving medical causes and treatment for infertility; as well as accepting and giving support to disabled persons.
  • Inviting individuals who have decided to protect life and human dignity (individuals, couples, and care-givers facing infertility, disability, illness, end-of-life …) to give their testimony for more balance in a debate which is too often monopolized by those with transgressive claims.

Currently a record number of people (7,000) are attending Alliance Vita’s 2018 Bioethics Conferences training sessions [2], which began on Monday January 15th in 140 cities throughout France and abroad. The sessions will continue for 3 successive Monday evenings on January 22nd and 29th, and February 5th.

________________________

[1] Alliance VITA was founded in 1993, during the first bioethics laws, and has been active for the past 25 years to insist on the fact that biotechnology must be employed for protecting those facing life’s hardships, while respecting human dignity, especially in the stages of life where human beings are the most vulnerable (embryonic stage, birth, disease, disability, old age or at the end-of-life).

[2] The public is cordially invited to attend Alliance VITA’s training sessions via the Bioethics Conferences. They are currently being held simultaneously in 120 French cities and 12 countries: Abu Dhabi, Germany, Belgium, United States, Italy, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Mexico, Nigeria, Portugal, United Kingdom, and Switzerland. Alliance VITA proposes a time of reflection on important issues related to the respect of human life and dignity via conferences from experts, philosophers, economists, doctors, and sociologists and from those who are at grass roots operating on VITA’s crisis help-lines and listening services.

Fines against surrogacy trade in Cambodia

by | January 12, 2018 | Medically Assisted Procreation

In order to fight against human trafficking, surrogacy trade has been banned since October 2016 in Cambodia and January 8th, 2018 was set as the time limit for amnesty.
Surrogate mothers will not be prosecuted if they gave birth and gave the child to the sponsors before January 8, 2018. The latter were urged to report cases to the Cambodian courts in order to obtain child custody and thereby obtain an exit visa through normal administrative channels.
This transition period of amnesty was necessary because the Cambodian women solicited by offers from agents, are often poor, uneducated and live in remote areas.
However as warned by the Interior Minister in July, the embassies have received the legal guideline stipulating that sponsors, surrogates and intermediaries will risk legal prosecution for any children born after the January 8th deadline. According to Cambodian law, the woman who gives birth is the child’s mother. A mother who abandons her own child is considered irresponsible, especially if she is involved in selling her own child. The law stipulates: “any individual who buys, sells, or exchanges another person is punishable for 2-5 years of imprisonment”. The sentence could be increased to up to 15 years if the child is “sold for adoption”, or “up to 20 years if the victim is a minor”.
In Cambodia, surrogacy rates exploded when its neighboring country Thailand banned the practice in 2015 for foreign parents, as did India and Nepal in 2016. Approximately 50 clinics specialized in surrogacy had established trade in Cambodia, although some agencies have since left for Laos following the regulatory announcement, and particularly after the November 2016 arrest of an Australian nurse for her implication.
This nurse who was sentenced to 18 months in prison in Cambodia in August 2017 recently lost her appeal on January 8, 2018, and will remain in prison until summer. She is accused of recruiting surrogate mothers and falsifying documents for birth certificates for newborns; she had also previously worked in Thailand in a clinic specialized in surrogacy.
The Permanence Vice-Chair of the National Committee for Counter Trafficking, Chou Bun Eng, said that a “prakas” (a regulation) would soon be published to specify the penalties for anyone involved in surrogacy, pending a report to be released by the Minister for Women’s Affairs.

Controversy in Belgium over "illicit" euthanasia

by | January 11, 2018 | News

In Belgium a disputable case of euthanasia recently made the headlines when a patient, with dementia, was given a lethal injection by his doctor. The physician thus acted in violation of the 2002 Euthanasia Act, without having either the patient’s consent or a second doctor’s opinion.
The Federal Euthanasia Control and Evaluation Commission referred this case, but failed to report it to the State Prosecutor for investigation. One of the commission members, shocked, turned in his resignation in protest. This new infringement provoked fierce reactions in the French-language media in Belgium.
The European Institute of Bioethics has published an analysis which raises questions about how the Commission operates: “The Flemish-language press mentions that some members fear that such cases will damage the reputation of Belgium’s euthanasia law and may even discourage doctors from practicing euthanasia out of fear of being prosecuted. Are political arguments going to prevail above respect of the law? “
==> For the entire analysis

Surveys and Bioethics: Wide Variations

by | January 5, 2018 | Bioethics, Medically Assisted Procreation

Polls reporting totally opposing viewpoints have been published within the past few months on allowing Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) donations to be made to single women or same-sex couples.
On January 3, 2018, the IFOP survey question was: “Would you be in favor of artificial insemination (also known as ART) for single women or homosexual female couples who wish to have a child?” The results reported 60% of the French in favor of ART for homosexual women couples and 57% favorable for single women.
In the September 2017 OpinionWay survey, the question was formulated differently: “In your opinion, should the state guarantee children conceived through assisted reproductive technology (ART) the right to have a father and a mother? This poll reported that 72% of the French believe the State must guarantee children born by ART the right to have a father and a mother.
It is obvious that the formulation of the questions greatly influences the answers. In the first question, “the interest of the child is masked” says Tugdual Derville, Alliance VITA’s general delegate. As well as the interest of men who are regarded as if they were only worthwhile for gametes.
The same January 3, 2018 IFOP survey published by “La Croix” shows 64% in favor of surrogacy. In the interest of children and women, heightened awareness is needed urgently in order to stimulate a genuine and reasonable debate, when we know that the surrogate mother system is such a serious transgression of human rights.
This is reminiscent of the considerable differences in end-of-life and euthanasia survey results, which were criticized in an April 2017 broadcast of “Envoyé Spécial” in a lengthy analysis which proved how questions may be biased.
In bioethics, “the reality, however, is more subtle and the questions are always more complicated than they seem at first glance,” emphasizes Jean-René Binet, a law professor, in a editorial entitled “Surveys mustn’t invent laws”.
Will the French National Bioethics Committee be ready to tackle humanitarian issues at their upcoming convention on January 18?
Alliance VITA’s priority is to protect human life and dignity. We are  committed to offering our expertise and speaking out for those who are the most vulnerable.