by NexDev | March 4, 2016 | Medically Assisted Procreation
Actress and American television talk-show host, Sherri Shepherd, is leading a legal battle “in order not to be considered as the official mother of a young 18-month-old boy”. The 48-year-old actress had recourse to an anonymous egg donation. The child conceived in vitro with her husband’s sperm then implanted in a surrogate mother for gestation, was financed by the couple for the sum of 30,000 dollars.
The star explained in People magazine she had agreed to launch the surrogacy practice only out of fear of seeing her husband leave her. Yet since then, the separation has occurred, and Sherri Shepherd clearly indicated that she did not want to be involved in the education of little L.J. in any way and is now fighting against paying alimony. However the American court has obliged the talk-show host, recognized as the legal mother on the birth certificate, to pay alimony to her ex-husband who takes care of the child alone. She appealed after the justice’s decision, but the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania refused to agree with her position.
Marie-Anne Frison Roche, aggregated in private law and a university professor, involved in the Collective for the People’s Respect (CoRP), movement for the abolition of maternity substitution, comments on her blog regarding this American case: ”the time for trials between the protagonists themselves has arrived. Some people assert that if French law would relinquish on the principle of banning surrogacy, a principle established by article 16-7 of the Civil Code, these trials would stop. On the contrary, when looking closely on this business, the opposite is observed: these trials are multiplying and they are particularly sordid”.
For Alliance VITA, urgent action is necessary to stop all forms of Surrogacy. Alliance VITA, partner of the association No Maternity Traffic, calls to sign and have others sign a petition which will soon be transmitted to the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
by NexDev | February 26, 2016 | Medically Assisted Procreation
Next March 15 in Paris, the Council of Europe’s Commission for social issues will be examining a project on surrogate motherhood. It is urgent to rally against this text which threatens to liberalize surrogate motherhood throughout Europe.
Yet, last November 2”, 2015, the social Commission for the Council of Europe had decided to postpone sine die this examination, due to potential failure of respecting deontology in the Parliamentary Assembly. Indeed, the rapporteur for this proposition, the senator and Belgian gynecologist, Petra de Sutter, practices surrogacy herself since it is tolerated in Belgium without having a legal status. Some investigations equally demonstrate her link with an Indian clinic Seeds of Innocence, where surrogacy is practiced for commercial purposes. On January 27, 2016, the Commission’s members decided to renounce pronouncing on the issue and to continue their study. The petitions asking to clarify the rapporteur’s conflict of interest nevertheless continue at the Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Europe.
Caroline Roux, Alliance VITA’s International Director, who coordinates with other international associations, No Maternity Traffic, reminds us what is at stake: “it’s so very important that European citizens look at this issue and make sure their voices are heard. The Council of Europe is not fulfilling its’ role if human rights are violated. Surrogate motherhood is particularly serious. It endorses women exploitation and their domination by sponsors. In addition, surrogate motherhood also seriously violates the rights of the child, who is the object of a programme, in which he is to be deliberately abandoned and cut off from the woman who bore him. Although some couples suffer from infertility this should not let us forget that this practice represents a mistreatment regarding his origins, which no regularization can repair. “Ethical” surrogate motherhood does not exist, nor does the “right” to a child. The only possible solution at an international level is the universal prohibition of surrogate motherhood, as is already the case on a world-wide level for cloning and trafficking of human beings.”
Besides, we observe a greater awareness of the seriousness of the issues related to surrogacy. In December 2015, a majority in the European Parliament condemned any and all surrogacy practices. In Sweden, a governmental report on surrogate motherhood was submitted to Parliament on February 2, 2016, calling for a solemn ban on any and all practices of surrogacy in that country. Several countries equally are starting to review their legislation in order to forbid this practice, starting by refusing recourse to foreign clinics; this is the case in India, Thailand or Nepal. These countries bring the genuine proof that the laws (and even the absence of explicit laws) can be reviewed if deemed unfair.
How to make a difference?
- Urgent: Prior to March 14: sign and share the No Maternity Traffic petition calling for the abolition of surrogate motherhood. This petition will be handed over to the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council in the near future.
- Rally on Tuesday March 15, 2016 in Paris, in front of the Council of Europe Office at 55 Ave. Kleber, 16th district, (Metro Station Boissière). The objective is to request that the Commission for social issues, who are gathered together that very day examine the text, and forbid the practice of surrogate motherhood in all forms.
by NexDev | February 26, 2016 | Medically Assisted Procreation
This week, a government survey on surrogate motherhood was submitted to the Swedish Parliament where it will likely be approved in the near future. The principle rapporteur Eva Wendel Rosenberg presented the conclusions to the Justice Minister, Morgan Johansson.
The report’s conclusions include all practices of surrogacy, no matter if titles such as “commercial” or “altruistic” are employed. Sweden equally plans to implement measures forbidding citizens from having recourse to foreign clinics for surrogacy.
According to Eva Wendel Rosenberg,” the most important reason for not accepting surrogate motherhood in Sweden is the risk that women might be pressurized into becoming surrogates. Indeed, becoming pregnant and giving birth to a child, is a commitment which implies risks.
According to Kajsa Ekis Ekman, Swedish journalist and feminist activist, “this is a revolutionary decision, a real step forward for women’s movement”. This speaker fights against all forms of surrogacy; she is regularly auditioned, for example, recently at the European Parliament and for the Court for International Abolition of Surrogate Motherhood which were held Tuesday February 2, 2016 at the National Assembly in Paris. In an editorial published by The Guardian, the young Swede specifies that “the notion of ‘altruistic’ surrogate motherhood- more than just being an illusion, since it is disconnected with reality, has a very strange ideological basis. As if exploitation only consisted in giving money to the woman. In this case, if she is paid less, is she less exploited?”
She specifies that the « Swedish survey dismisses the argument that so-called “altruistic” surrogacy cases” could be acceptable. “There is no proof, according to the survey, that legalization of so-called “altruistic” surrogate motherhood could eliminate the commercial business of surrogacy. International experience demonstrates the opposite – the citizens in countries such as the United States or Great Britain, where the practice of surrogate mothers is widespread, are among the most numerous foreign sponsors in India and in Nepal. Surrogacy demands that a woman carry the child for nine months, and then give him away.”
An awareness of the seriousness of what is at issue in relation to surrogacy is being confirmed in Europe. No Maternity Traffic, of which Alliance VITA is a partner, has called for a massive rally of European citizens for the universal abolition of surrogacy. To sign the petition: www.nomaternitytraffic.eu
by NexDev | February 26, 2016 | Medically Assisted Procreation
Currently several research projects are being carried out to address increasing problems of infertility.
Chinese researchers are working on creating in vitro gametes from embryonic stem cells. They continued the researches made by Japanese biologists who had already “cultivated” mouse spermatozoids in 2011.
The February 25, 2016 article in the Stem Cell journal describes a new study, co-directed by Jiahao Sha and Qi Zhou, which could be the first to demonstrate the possibility of creating spermatozoids from stem cells which have the fertilizing capacity of “natural” sperm cells. To obtain this result, they succeeded in bringing embryo stem cells into the meiosis step (of cellular division) to produce a functional gamete. The technique uses embryo stem cells (ESCs) from mice placed into culture of a cellular suspension derived from mouse testicle with different hormones and adjuvants, aimed at setting off meiosis: the goal is thus to inhibit the cell to multiply and divide its’ genetic material, to pass from a 46 chromosome cell to a 23 chromosome cell, a phenomenon which occurs naturally in the testicles and the ovaries. The meiosis stage is long, it lasts approximately one month in most mammals, but the researchers stopped at the stage preceding spermatogenesis, which is called spermatid. Created in this way, the artificial sperm cells do not have flagella and thus cannot swim like natural spermatozoids. But injected into an ovocyte, these embryos developed, and were then implanted in female mice: who have then given birth to baby mice, and the study specifies that these mice are also capable of reproducing.
This technique has raised controversies, as revealed by the scientific journal, Nature. Takashi Shinohara, reproductive biologist at Kyoto University in Japan, has his doubts: he notes that “the researchers have difficulties in obtaining the same results several times”.
« The fact that the resulting cell can be injected in an ovule to produce a viable animal is a rigorous test”, Allan Spradling, explains reproductive biologist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Baltimore, Maryland. “ However the mice created in this way may later manifest defects or problems”.
Azim Surani, biologist in development at Cambridge University, in the UK, concludes that “the results are encouraging”, but warns “that it is difficult to know if the artificial spermatids behave exactly as their natural homologues”.
“It is really going to change the way we think about cases of infertility which are currently unable to be treated by IVF. It will really be a revolution in assisted reproduction as we know it. All the IVF clinics would be likely to hop on it, although in my opinion that would be very premature” said bioethicist Terry Hassold of Washing State University. “There are important differences between sperm cells developed in mice versus those in man” warns YI Zhang, geneticist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, and adds “it’s not as simple as we might hope”.
Is the technique applicable to humans?
For the treatment of masculine infertility, in order to be capable of conceiving children, one needs for example to use the adult cells of the man himself to transform them into spermatozoids. Researchers have already demonstrated that this is conceivable by reprogramming skin cells.
This technique therefore raises important ethical questions. While artificially setting off meiosis, we don’t know for example, if the spermatids thus created had mutated, making the child to be born the “guinea pig” for life, of the technique used for his conception. Furthermore, making gametes from adult cells opens the possibility of creating an ovule from the skin cell of a man, for example, and thus conceiving in vitro a human embryo using DNA from two individuals of the same sex or solely from one individual, which would constitute a form of cloning.
And in such a context, specifies Jean-Yves Nau, technically nothing will hinder these sexual neo-cells from being genetically modified by use of the revolutionary new technique of CRISPR-Cas9.
by NexDev | February 25, 2016 | Medically Assisted Procreation
Faced with the public authorities’ refusal to act in the fight against foreign agencies selling contracts of surrogacy on our territory, a jurists’ association announced on February 22, 2016 they would file a civil case.
Despite surrogacy being illegal in France, foreign agencies regularly arrive on our soil proposing a set of services to people or couples wishing to acquire a child. These services include contacting surrogate mothers abroad, purchasing ovocytes, organizing the transfer of gametes, managing contracts and administrative procedures, repatriating the baby, payments, etc.
In October 2014, the French association Jurists for childhood filed a complaint for infringing on mediation aimed at surrogacy against the American company Circle Surrogacy, based on known facts and liable for one year of detention, and a 15,000 € fine, according to article 227-12 of the penal code.
The complaint was nevertheless dismissed, the association announced via its’ press release on February 22, 2016 : « While the Senate Law Commission has just turned in a report in favor of strengthening criminal punishment for surrogacy activities, and invites France to negotiate with countries practicing surrogacy in order to forbid French people from having recourse to this practice, Jurists for Childhood puts its confidence in justice which cannot disregard French law, allowing foreign companies sell door-to-door to potential French customers on our territory”.
That is why the association has decided to pursue its initiatives by acting jointly with the public prosecutor.
Alliance VITA is a partner of the association No Maternity Traffic which has issued an appeal for the universal abolition of surrogacy, a disgraceful practice of marketing a woman’s body and the commodification of unborn children. They call for signing an online petition for abolishing surrogacy.
