by NexDev | December 18, 2015 | End of life
The law on society’s adaptation to ageing was brought up for final vote at the National Assembly last December 10, then in the Senate on December 14, thus terminating after a year of delays, the long process of social dialogue and complex legislative debates.
Thus far, this law has gone unnoticed, especially since it only brings a partial solution to the financial burden for charges related to retirement homes and the dependency of very elderly people. A second law was originally planned to treat these questions, but due to the state of public finances, no specific perspective is currently being evoked.
In order to foster home care, the principal objective of this first law, a global budget of more than 700 million Euros is planned. The key provision consists in revising the funding of the Personal Autonomy Allocation, attributed to 600,000 vulnerable people living at home. The monthly limits will be revalorized, in order to increase the number of hours of help available for elderly people who need it the most and to reduce their financial participation.
Eighty thousand private housing units will be modified by 2017 and the valorization of “Autonomous Residences” (previously called lodging foyers, with 110,000 places in 2,200 establishments) is also planned. Numerous other measures concern governance and collaboration of entities qualified in this domain, as well as for the provision of assistance to individuals.
The most symbolic measure is the creation of « a statutory right to respite for the care givers». Among the 4.3 million care-givers who take care of a dependant or handicapped loved one, approximately 800,000 look after Personal Autonomy Allocation beneficiaries in their homes. To allow these care-givers a rest and to avoid the unfortunate all too frequent exhaustion, an annual allocation reaching as much as 500 € would permit financing a stay for those individuals with a significant loss of autonomy to stay in temporary lodging or a center for daily care. Family-related leave provided for currently under labor laws, has also been converted to “care-givers leave”.
by NexDev | December 18, 2015 | Bioethics, Medically Assisted Procreation
According to the article published by Europe 1 on December 11, 2015, the president of the District Court in Nantes asked the State to transcribe birth certificates for two children born to a surrogate mother in California, on the birth registers of the Foreign Affair Ministry.
The judge relied on the “decision in Mennesson and Labassee” from the European Human Rights Court (EHRC) on June 26, 2014. This decision sanctioned France for having “violated the right for respect of private life” by refusing to transcribe the filial relationship with the biological father on the French civil register for children born abroad from a surrogate mother. Although having the opportunity to appeal, France did not contest this decision, even though this practice is prohibited within its’ territory. However, the EHRC did not pronounce a ruling on the French authorities’ choice to prohibit surrogacy.
The California birth certificates mention the intended mother as the mother having given birth, which does not reflect the truth, since the children were born to a different woman, the surrogate mother. In the decree rendered last October 3, the president of the court, considered nonetheless that “the facts that are affirmed conform to a court ruling legally dispensed in California, and ensures enforceability of the surrogate mother’s contract which attributes legal paternity to the sponsoring father and legal maternity to his spouse.”
Furthermore, the president of the court ordered the State to reimburse the couple 3500 Euros for court fees, even though they had broken the law.
Transcribing birth certificates is a serious degradation of our Rights. Before the reversal in jurisprudence by the Cassation Court’s decisions last July 3rd all the tribunal courts condemned the practice of surrogacy, as it opposes the principle of inalienability of the human body and a person’s integrity. The courts refused to transcribe these births on the French civil register, thereby denying official filial recognition. Indeed, it is in opposition to the inalienability of the integrity of people, an essential principle in French law, to have an effect on an agreement concerning procreation for another person, making public order null and void in terms of Civil code articles 16-7 and 26-9.
Transcribing the name of the sponsoring mother on civil registries has the consequence of designating that woman as the mother by French law, although she did not give birth to the child. Yet, the only means to attribute the maternity to a woman who did not carry the child, is by a legally authorized adoption, and such an adoption is explicitly inconceivable in the case of surrogacy because it would constitute a misappropriation of adoption agencies.
Gestational surrogacy involves legal, anthropological and medical implications which call basic legal principles into question. This practice establishes a program whereby a child is separated – by contract – from the woman who carried him and gave him birth, which does not respect the child’s rights. A fragmented maternity between two, even three women (progenitor, gestational carrier, and educator), constitutes a serious injustice for the child. It is also an injustice for the surrogate mothers whose role amounts to a form of slavery, incompatible with their human dignity. Those who have recourse to this technique abroad have a serious responsibility: without denying the legitimacy of the children concerned to have a civil registry and filiation, erasing their complicated background is not the means to respect their profound identity. To base their identity on adults’ lies does not comply with the real interest of the child, and will lead to inevitable future contestations if the State upholds this fiction.
Recall as mentioned in a Senate report, that “prohibiting the establishment of filiation for a child born in violation of French law doubtlessly remains the most dissuasive sanction with respect for those whose irrepressible desire for a child sometimes results in blindness” .[i]
The prosecution has appealed against this decision.
by NexDev | December 18, 2015 | Bioethics, Medically Assisted Procreation
The commission for institutional affaires in the Belgian Senate took the initiative one year ago to establish an initiative report on surrogate pregnancy practices.
The Senate acknowledged receiving the commission’s work on Friday December 11, 2015, which gives a situational analysis and outlines the different parties’ positions.
Belgian law neither forbids, nor authorizes the practice of surrogate motherhood. The practice is “tolerated” in 4 fertility centers: a hundred children have been born by surrogacy in the past 20 years.
Although all parties reject the principle of surrogacy in exchange for commercial remuneration, the debate has not been resolved over the possible guidelines for this practice.
This report was sent to the Prime Minister and the president of the House of Representatives as are all legislative initiative reports.
Since 2014, the Belgian Senate no longer has authority for initiative legislation, which remains the sole prerogative of the House of Representatives (equivalent to the French National Assembly)
This work appears while the European Parliament has just condemned the practice of surrogate gestation under all forms. Therefore the Chamber must decide if it is appropriate to address the issue.
by NexDev | December 18, 2015 | Bioethics, Medically Assisted Procreation
On December 17, 2015, the European Parliament adopted a draft resolution in the context of the vote for the annual report on human rights and democracy in the world and on the politics of the European Union including a condemnation of the practice of gestational surrogacy.
Among the measures presented by the rapporteur, the Rumanian European deputy, Chistian Dan Preda (PPE), the point 114 “condemns the practice of gestational surrogacy which goes against the human dignity of the woman, whose body and reproductive functions are utilized as merchandise; judges that this practice, by which reproductive functions and women’s bodies, especially those of vulnerable women in developing countries, are exploited for financial purposes or for other gains, must be forbidden and that priority must be given to examining this issue as a part of the instruments for the defense of human rights”.
This condemnation of all forms of recourse to ‘surrogate mothers’ adopted by a large majority comes while several international bodies are also treating this issue, such as the Council of Europe and the Hague Conference on Private International Law.
This position follows the direction requested by European citizens belonging to No Maternity Traffic, of which Alliance VITA is a member, calling for the universal prohibition of gestational surrogacy.
www.nomaternitytraffic.eu
by NexDev | December 18, 2015 | Uncategorized
The national counsel for the Order of Physicians conducted a survey to gather testimonies, perceptions and expectations from nearly 35,000 doctors, supplemented by the results of a poll carried out by data mirroring? Simultaneously? with over 4,000 health-system users. The conclusions of the survey were published on December 17, 2015.
The Order clarifies « a profound discomfort in the medical profession ». Indeed, if 89% among them are proud to practice a profession that constitutes above all a vocation, they consider that practicing this occupation has too many constraints and is under-valorized: 97% of doctors consider that they endure too many regulatory, economic, and administrative obligations, which encroach on their medical time, and 91% consider that their public service mission is poorly recognized.
Accordingly, there are 74% who proclaim to be worried about the profession’s future, an uneasiness which by the way, extends to the entire health-care system, and is shared by their clientele: 82% of doctors, and 63% of the French people, consider that the health care system is deteriorating, and 86% of doctors are pessimists for the future (for 69% of the French people).
Eighty-three per cent of doctors also feel the health-care system has been deteriorating for the past 10 years, an observation shared by 63% of the French. In question, the health-care steering by the public authorities, judged unsatisfactory by 93% of doctors, and the feeling by 53% of French people that health is not a priority for the public authorities.
For the Order of physicians the first priority is to “recover medical time”. For the president, Patrick Bouet: “The doctor desires to care for people. That’s why he chose to study medicine. Yet, nowadays, his medical time is taken up by administrative tasks, which are a source of frustration. This is true for all doctors, not only those in private practice!”
Ninety-eight % of doctors deem that increasing medical time by reducing administrative complexities is an important path for reform: it is even a priority for 86% of them. This plebiscite is not surprising for a profession which has repeatedly sounded the alarm in 16 regional meetings organized by the Order since September, of not having sufficient time dedicated to care.
The Order of Doctor’s esteems that it is necessary to articulate its’ propositions around medical time, and by thereby maintaining this aspect, appears for them the best means to propose an efficient system for all.
An encouraging and positive fact, in the everyday life of doctors, their relationship with patients obtained very high satisfaction scores (88% of whom 20% obtained a “very satisfied” rating) and 97% of patients stating the relationship is good with their family practitioner (with 68% stating that it is “very good”): the other private practice physicians (95% of whom 50% scored “very good”) the hospital physicians (91% of whom 47% were rated “very good”) or even the occupational physicians (86% of whom 29% obtained a “very good” score)! The world of medical consultations thus seems to be preserved.
Faced with the concerns for tomorrow’s health, the physicians want to be actors of change and unanimously call for a shared reform of the health-care system. This large-scale consultation would give rise to a report and propositions formulated for the future of the health-care system which will be rendered public on January 26, during a major debate, and communicated to institutional physicians, health-care actors, and all physicians.
