by NexDev | November 18, 2016 | Abortion, Press Releases
Today in France the Foundation for the Future and the researchers at INSERM (French Medical Research Institute) published the results for their study criticizing the lack of information on the side-effects of drug-induced “medical” abortions. Finally the truth has been revealed on this abortion technique which was unjustly portrayed for years as being “less traumatizing”. Following a drug-induced abortion 27% of women signaled having “very severe pain” (8 on a scale of 10); and one third of the women reported “worrisome” or “very worrisome” hemorrhaging. The study recommended stronger pain management protocols.
Caroline Roux, Alliance VITA’s coordinator for the crisis line listening service declares:
« Why hide the intensity of the drug- induced abortion side effects? Women have a right to receive complete and honest information.
For several years, we have been requesting a study on the real consequences that follow an abortion. We are regularly confronted with suffering women who were told that drug-induced abortion was simple and painless. They become very anxious when they experience symptoms of pain and bleeding but also psychological and emotional distress.
We are astounded by the silence in the medical community and the lying about this method of abortion when it is portrayed to women as being less traumatizing.
We regularly receive calls, on week-ends or in the evening, from women who are left on their own at home, alone, after having an abortion outside of the hospital, at a doctor’s office or family planning center. We are well aware of the time pressure for this abortion method. It is practiced before 7 weeks of pregnancy (and as early as 5 weeks if performed outside the hospital) which forces women to make a quick decision, without having a period of reflection, especially if they suffer from outside pressure or domestic violence. Yet the psychological violence that leads to aborting is completely occulted.”
Tugdual Derville, Alliance VITA’s General Delegate states:
« Our government which plans to criminalize websites opposing abortion should seriously reflect on its own information policy.
In the government’s website, a video shows a gynecologist attesting that abortion leaves no long-term psychological side effects.
Rather than political grandstanding on a hypothetical offense, having in mind to gag any opposition to trivializing abortion, the public authorities should give priority to giving complete and honest information to women.
- Studies conducted on the physiological and also the psychological side effects of abortion are urgently needed. As mentioned by the French National Authority for Health, objective data is lacking.
- A genuine prevention policy for abortion is urgently needed, particularly by publishing information on subventions and rights for pregnant women. Since 2010, this has been Alliance VITA’s mission of public service to make up for the governmental policy’s shortfalls. “
by NexDev | November 18, 2016 | Uncategorized
A French start-up, Wandercraft, founded by Nicolas Simon, a young graduate from France’s renowned Ecole Polytechnique engineering school has just announced the test phase for his exoskeleton called “Atalante”. The objective is for quadriplegics or those with muscular dystrophy to be able to get up and to walk without help.
In the past few years, individuals with physical disabilities, especially paraplegics have been given new hope by the latest assisted technologies. Some are thus able to walk again, thanks to exoskeletons or other bionic prostheses.
Last June, an American lady who loved trekking and has been paraplegic since 2014, was able to climb the Appalachian Mountains using an exoskeleton developed by the Ottobock company.
Last summer during the Paralympics held in Rio, Marie-Amélie Le Fur, a French woman, was able to run thanks to a prosthetic blade inserted to replace her left leg, winning both a gold and a bronze medal.
Last September, a young British lady, Claire Lomas, paralyzed after falling from a horse in 2007, was able to finish the UK’s Great North Run half-marathon in 5 days with her exoskeleton.
The “Cybathlon 2016” was held In Switzerland last October: a competitive sporting event for disabled athletes fitted with novel assisted technology, such as exoskeletons. This event does not focus on sport performance, but on encouraging research progress. Disabled athletes from 25 countries participated using high-tech assisted equipment.
Nevertheless, the border line between treatment and enhancement is sometimes very teneous. Thus, Marie-Amélie Le Fur recently exposed her concerns regarding these technologies which are progressing faster and faster: “There is no point correcting a disability to surpass our limitations. (…) I have often wondered where I would stop. Transhumanism frightens me. To exclusively focus on our body as an instrument leads us astray. Shall we be able to control the high-tech equipment installed in our bodies? I’m not so sure.”
by NexDev | November 18, 2016 | Medically Assisted Procreation
On Thursday November 18, the Paris criminal court heard a surrogacy case, a practice that is illegal in France.
The sponsoring couple for the child as well as the surrogate mother received a 3 months suspended prison sentence and a fine 4000€. The doctor who performed the insemination was also convicted to a 6-month suspended sentence, 1 € of punitive fines, and 1000 € for legal costs to pay the French Order of Doctors who represented the plaintiff.
The case began with a complaint lodged on September 2014 by the surrogate mother herself, a young lady from Gabon. She explained that she had come to France at her mother’s request, (who had served as intermediary for the transaction) in order to bear the child for the couple. The sponsoring woman already has 3 children with a different man. At the time of the incident, she was 44 years old, and was unable to conceive a child with her partner, thus they decided to proceed with surrogacy. After the child’s birth, the conflicts erupted between the child’s birth mother and the sponsoring couple, especially regarding the frequency of visits for the mother who gave birth to the little girl. She finally obtained custody of the child.
We must point out that surrogacy is banned by French law, and that any surrogacy contract is declared invalid by public policy provisions. “Any contract concerning procreation or surrogacy for another person is null”. (Civil Code, article 16-7). This means that this contract entails no binding legal effect. Nevertheless, the criminal code only criminalizes surrogacy in an indirect way, by condemning the intermediaries (Criminal Code article 227-12) or the simulation of motherhood (Criminal Code article 227-13).
Version relue par CM avant acceptation des corrections
French Surrogacy Case involving several convictions
On Thursday November 18, the Paris criminal court heard a surrogacy case, a practice that is illegal in France.
The sponsoring couple for the child as
by NexDev | November 18, 2016 | Medically Assisted Procreation
On November 17, 2016 the French Defender of Rights, Jacques Toubon made a statement « for France to recognize filiation for the intended parent” meaning to give official recognition as “parent” to individuals who used surrogacy abroad to have a child.
Jacques Toubon made this statement during a “scientific symposium” considered highly controversial due to the lack of diversity for the speakers and to the absence of questioning about surrogacy practises. Currently surrogacy is banned in France, although some couples or individuals have gone abroad to circumvent the law.
But the “Taubira directive”, as well as recent case law has resulted in facilitating the recognition of French civil status for the sponsoring biological parent. Since July 2015 and after the Court of Cassation’s decision, a child born abroad to a surrogate mother is entitled to French civil registration.
The Defender of Rights does not make it a secret that he wants filiation of the intended parent(s) to be recognized. In his opinion “This will most assuredly be the next issue filed at the court of Cassation and the European Court of Human Rights”.
Ultimately, the end result would be to register on the child’s birth certificate any individual who had recourse to a surrogate mother as being the parent whether they are single, heterosexual or homosexual couples, etc without requiring any biological relationship whatsoever.
Mr. Toubon’s statement comes as a follow-up to a series of talks on the same topic.
In October 2014, only a few days after Manuel Valls’ declaration, which ultimately fell on deaf ears, Jacque Toubon contradicted him: “We think, representing the Defender of Rights, it is indeed the government’s responsibility to recognize parent-child relationships by allowing civil registration in France”.
Indeed, in July 2015, during the trial at the court of Cassation, he spontaneously intervened during the first instance. Via his attorney, Barrister Spinosi, he pleaded in favor of granting filiation on French civil registration of the children. During the audience, the Defender of Rights’ lawyer went so far as declaring “that there is no maternal relationship between the child and the woman who bore the child…”
Having a conflict of interest with his lawyer did nothing to dissuade Mr. Toubon from appealing for his help. Indeed, M. Spinosi is also the lawyer of Mr. and Mrs. Mennesson, who obtained a conviction for France in June 2014 from the European Court of Human Rights. He is also the legal representative for the activist association “CLARA” (the committee for legalizing surrogacy in someone’s place, and for assisted reproduction), and in this role, he intervened for them before the Council of State.
Caroline Roux, Alliance VITA’s crisis center coordinator, specialized in maternity and pregnancy issues, and involved in the international coordination for No Maternity Traffic states:
“It is astounding that Mr. Toubon parodies his function to the point of becoming an “Anti-Defender” of rights by scorning women and children’s rights. We must bear in mind that surrogacy is a transgression: children are just objects in a contract; women’s bodies are commodified, as if they were incubators, and children are deliberately separated from their birth mothers. If surrogacy is illegal in France, it is because it raises serious ethical questions. How can we pretend to forbid a practice, and at the same time validate the resulting effects of such a practise?”
by NexDev | November 18, 2016 | Uncategorized
On December 1, 2016, Alliance VITA organized a special evening with Tugdual Derville, General Delegate, including a conference and autograph session, to mark the release of his new book: “The Time of Humanity – For a Revolution in Human Ecology’ published by Editions Plon.
This event will be held at Asiem, 6 Rue Albert de Lapparent, 75007 Paris.
There is no charge, but since places are limited, reservations are required.
Today, it is man who needs to be protected. Urgently. Not an uprooted man, but a well-rooted one in his own culture and his own environment.
We are all interconnected, and this is a great strength for us. No need to wait for a providential leader. It is up to us to take the initiative, by forming a society that respects “every man” (meaning every aspect of the human individual) and “all men” (without excluding the poorest and the most vulnerable).
In this book, I suggest a truthful analysis with tangible key actions to work together. Starting now.
Tugdual Derville, Alliance VITA’s General Delegate
Refer to the website www.letempsdelhomme.com for book extracts, media impact, as well as future dates (conferences and autograph sessions)
