by NexDev | March 7, 2019 | Maternity
On February 26, 2019, the High Court in Versailles condemned the web host provider of a Spanish website, for advertising surrogacy services in France.
This decision was rendered after the Spanish website Subrogalia refused to delete their surrogacy ads which targeted French people. Already in 2016, the Lawyer’s Association for Children issued Subrogalia a formal notice to delete its surrogacy ads, regarded as illegal in France where the practice is prohibited. Since Subrogalia did not respond, the lawyers’ association contacted the host provider, who also refused to delete the internet site’s content.
The High Court in Versailles validated the association’s request to declare the site’s content as illegal, and also by verifying that the web host provider was aware of this illegal publicity.
Following this decision, the web host provider must stop hosting the Subrogalia internet site.
by NexDev | March 7, 2019 | End of life, News
Alliance VITA firmly denounces the media coverage via “Konbini” (a French pop culture website), regarding a woman who declares having killed her severely disabled 3-year-old child more than 30 years ago.
Caroline Roux, Alliance Vita’s Assistant General Delegate asserts: “It is unacceptable to publicly endorse infanticide. All children have the right to be protected, especially when they are weak, frail or disabled. This media coverage is utterly insulting to people with disabilities and to their loved ones.“
In order to support people facing life issues of severe dependency and the End-of-Life, Alliance VITA has developed a specialized listening service. VITA members are particularly attentive to the difficulties arising from dependency and care-givers exhaustion. Caroline Roux empathizes: “It is understandable that these parents were overwhelmed by their son’s handicap. In this type of circumstance, it is absolutely necessary to seek help”. And continues “This woman’s justification for killing her son is endangering other children and their parents, even to the point of causing a pandemonium, as happened previously following reports published on this site. “
A few months ago, the same website broadcast a video of Jacqueline Jencquel who declared that she didn’t want to live beyond a certain age, where she might risk losing her self-sufficiency. Thus this French woman has set a date to end her life in a Swiss clinic in 2020 by assisted suicide. People with disabilities felt deeply hurt and strongly denounced her assertion which was an affront to their dignity. In the weeks following the broadcast, Alliance VITA’s SOS End-of-Life Service received a landslide of requests for information on assisted suicide from mentally-weak individuals.
by NexDev | March 1, 2019 | Old age and Dependency
On February 27, a European Charter on Advanced Age was published to promote consideration for older persons. This charter intends to challenge the candidates in the upcoming European elections, (May 23-26) to give older people an appropriate and dignified place in today’s society.
The charter was drafted by influential persons and doctors from various associations and academics who involved in inclusion and autonomy issues. Their leitmotiv is to “fight against ageism as a means of discrimination and stigmatization.”
Among the people who signed the charter are Grégoire Bellut (from Alternative Collective Lodging), Edouard de Hennezel (founder of the Vulnerability and Society Circle), Alain Villez (President of the Little Brothers of the Poor), etc. They personally endorse the charter, independently of their organizations. As director of the Association of Directors to Serve the Elderly, known in France as “AD-PA”, Romain Gizolme, insists on the fact that the general public is unaware of age discrimination. It is “poorly known, poorly identified and underestimated. Nevertheless ageism is very prevalent in the work world “. They suggest including « a complete overhaul for inter-generational policies” in the candidates platform for the upcoming European Parliamentary elections.
On February 25, at least 4000 members of the French Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology (SFGG) signed an editorial entitled “We are all older than someone”. They hope that “one day social norms will be rectified, as they were for sexism and racism.”
Also campaigning for equal rights in European policies is the AGE Platform Europe, who published 7 key recommendations to protect the rights of Europeans at any age. In 2010, a European Manifesto on the Rights and Responsibilities of Older Persons in Need of Long-Term Care was developed as part of the European Commission’s Daphne III program.
A major issue in the coming decades will be dependency or loss of autonomy, especially for the elderly. In a society driven by utility and profitability, some describe these changes as a form of “social euthanasia” for older persons.
Social cohesion will be unattainable without attributing a place for old age at the heart of society. A report published in 2016 underlines that “ageing on the high end of the scale” or longer life expectancy goes with “ageing from the lower end” or lowering of the fecundity of almost the whole planet. Thus to avoid risking a breach in the dynamics of intergenerational solidarity, future policies need to take these two phenomena into account.
by NexDev | March 1, 2019 | Bioethics
New revelations have been reported in the case of the Chinese scientist who first used the CRISPR-Cas9 technique to genetically modify twin babies’ genes before birth.
The birth announcement of twin girls in China last November sparked international condemnation for violating scientific guidelines against the use of gene-edited embryos to start pregnancies. He Jiankui admitted to crossing the red line to test his hypothesis of “rendering these babies HIV-resistant” by using the editing tool CRISPR to delete the CCR5 gene. This gene codes for a receptor in the immune system (lymphocytes), whereas the HIV virus requires this gene to enter human blood cells to infect them to cause AIDS.
However, the CCR5 gene is responsible for additional biological functions. When its’ DNA is modified, the impact and any possible collateral damage are only gradually observed by monitoring the babies’ development. As a result of the scientific manipulation in this life-size experiment, these Chinese twins are genuine human “guinea pigs”.
Since the CCR5 gene is also involved in cognition, it is believed to improve memory recovery after a stroke. According to a publication in the journal Cell on February 21, 2019, people with a genetic mutation called Δ32 CCR5, which prevents this gene expression, could have better academic results. The renowned scientific magazine from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) just outside of Boston, in Cambridge, Massachusetts interviewed Thomas Carmichael, who led the new study. He believes the link to educational success is interesting but says it needs further study.
There is no evidence that He Jiankui actually set out to modify the twins’ intelligence, but several scientists are now mentioning this possibility. The Chinese scientist was certainly aware of the link between CCR5 and cognition, which was first shown in studies on mice in 2016.
Currently being investigated by the Chinese police, He Jiankui’s research has been suspended. According to the preliminary results, it appears that the scientist acted alone by forging official documents, which would be catamount to admitting many flaws in the Chinese institutional system.
Although China has announced that it will define new rules for supervising genetic research, many Chinese and foreign researchers suspect that the project may have been government-funded.
by NexDev | February 28, 2019 | Medically Assisted Procreation
On February 13, the Spanish Consulate in Kiev refused to register babies born to surrogate mothers in Ukraine. Spain intends to dissuade its citizens from having recourse to this practice, which is a serious violation of human rights.
A source from the Ministry of Justice explains that “These parents have resorted to a practice that is illegal in Spain, and which is used to exploit women’s bodies in exchange for money”.
Every month a dozen babies had been registered in Ukraine on behalf of Spanish sponsors. The embassy said that while existing cases will be handled individually, no new cases will be accepted.
Already last summer, dozens of Spanish citizens were blocked for several weeks from returning home with their surrogate babies born in Ukraine. The Spanish government mentions concerns about medical malpractice and human trafficking.
In Spain, surrogacy is strongly opposed by the ruling Socialist party, as well as the right-wing People’s Party and Podemos. Only the Ciudadanos (liberal moderates) are in favor of surrogacy.
Ukrainian law permits surrogacy for heterosexual couples who are either Ukrainian nationals or foreigners. Prices are known to be cheaper than elsewhere, even though they reach 50,000 €, which includes a compensation – which is not fixed by contract – for the surrogate mother. The law in Ukraine states that the baby belongs to the “intended parents” or sponsors, and the surrogate mother has no parental rights from the moment of conception.
Surrogacy is illegal in Spain, but agencies continue to encourage this practice abroad, without any sanctions for the moment.
