by NexDev | November 24, 2015 | Bioethics, Press Releases
From Monday January 11th to February 1st the 11th edition of the University of Life, Alliance VITA’s bioethics conference will address the theme “Our society in need of healing – How to act in favor of a culture of life?” These sessions will be held by videoconferencing in 113 towns, in France and in at least 6 other countries.
Already attended by more than 20,000 people in the preceding years, the Bioethics Conference 2016 is intended for those who have already participated as well as for “newcomers”. This year, the sessions will be focused on action. Already decided upon before the tragic events in November 2015, the theme “Our society in need of Healing” responds to profound expectations. Realizing the extent to which our society is lacking essential reference points, many people do not want to passively bear the consequences of its errors, but wish to act concretely and join together to improve the situation.
Each one of the four evenings will reflect on the sufferings and the contradictions of our society and some remedial solutions. Everyone is invited to take a personal stance faced with humanitarian, political and cultural challenges.
The theme for 2016 will be addressed using Alliance VITA’s specific approach which is enriched on the one hand, by the experience of its listening services for people confronted with painful situations at the beginning or the end of life, and on the other hand, by its awareness-raising effort aimed at the general public and decision-makers. François-Xavier Pérès, Tugdual Derville, Caroline Roux, Henri de Soos, Valérie Boulanger and Dr. Xavier Mirabel will share analysis and explain their views and the way the association acts. The conference will be led by Blanche Streb.
Adding to their speeches will be five experts: philosophers François-Xavier Bellamy, Thibaud Collin and Martin Steffens, accompaniment specialist, Anne Davigo-Le Brun and doctor in law Grégor Puppinck. The purpose is to clarify several indispensible concepts for action such as trials, bereavement, democracy, natural law, human rights, culture…
As a supplementary innovation this year, Alliance VITA has invited four founders of institutions dedicated to weak or vulnerable people, to tell about their itinerary and their outlook on society: Laurent de Cherisey (Simon de Cyrène), Etienne Villemain (Les Maisons Lazare), Christian de Cacqueray (Catholic funeral services) and Jean-Marc Potdevin (Réseau Entourage).
The way their social innovations were founded and conducted is a valuable source of example and emulation for all of us. Furthermore, other numerous experts and witnesses will intervene in the towns where the Bioethics conference takes place, ending each evening by a time for “regional coverage” allowing specific local witnesses for each town so desiring.
For the third time, the Bioethics Conference will be broadcast throughout France simultaneously in 113 rooms, by a video conference system from a Parisian center. As in 2015, the Bioethics Conference will be offered internationally. Notably, the Berlin, Brussels, Liege, Lausanne, Zurich, Rome, New York, Casablanca, will assure retransmission.
A special effort will be made to facilitate interactivity within the room and between different sites.
Dates of the evenings: Monday January 11th, 18th, and 25th and February 1st from 20:15 to 22:30 pm.
For information, check the website: http://www.universitedelavie.fr
by NexDev | November 23, 2015 | Bioethics, Medically Assisted Procreation
On Monday, November 23rd, the Committee on Social Affairs of the Council of Europe, meeting in Paris, decided to postpone sine die the examination of the draft resolution on surrogacy, due to a potential breach of the rules of the Parliamentary Assembly.
The issue is the choice of the rapporteur for the draft, the Belgian Senator Petra De Sutter, who in her professional activity practices surrogacy. However, the Code of Conduct for Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly expressly prohibits the rapporteurs to have a professional “interest connected with the subject of the report” (art. 1.1.1.).
The Committee on Social Affairs has decided to investigate this situation before deciding whether to “withdraw (…) her mandate and replace (…) her” or not, as set forth in the Code of Conduct.
No maternity traffic is satisfied with this decision and hopes that the future discussion on this draft resolution will take place in better conditions “of neutrality, impartiality and objectivity“, in accordance with the Code of Conduct, and as deserves such a serious topic.
No Maternity Traffic recalls that surrogacy is a form of human trafficking, which involves the exploitation of the female body and the commodification of children. The only human policy is to seek effectively prohibiting the practice while resolving, case by case, the existing situations.
Last week No Maternity Traffic sent a letter and a written contribution to all the members of the Committee on Social Affairs to inform them of the Petition which already gathered more than 100,000 signatures.
To sign the petition, please click here.
by NexDev | November 20, 2015 | Bioethics, News, Prenatal diagnosis
In a press release dated November 18, 2015, the Supreme Health Authority published their first report on the performance of new tests using « Non-invasive Prenatal Screening” for Trisomy 21, which examines maternal blood for fetal DNA sequences from chromosome 21. These new tests could modify screening methods: studies are being carried out in France and the results are expected soon.
Currently, prenatal screening in France is based on measuring the
« nuchal translucency» of the fetus by sonogram, combined with analyzing serial markers during the 1st and 2nd trimesters of pregnancy. This screening establishes “a rate of risk” which, if over or equal to 1/250, may lead to proposing a complementary diagnosis by amniocentesis or Chorionic villus sampling (CVS) to determine the fetal karyotype. These invasive exams lead to the loss of 1% of fetus, whether they might be healthy or carriers of a certain pathology.
In France, the 2011 bioethics law has made it compulsory to inform all pregnant women, regardless of their age, on the possibility of having access to combined screening for Trisomy 21 as early as the first trimester of their pregnancy. The changeover towards having these early tests performed happened very quickly: in 2013, the combined tests in the 1st trimester represented 73% of the total of tests performed, compared to 2% in 2009.
For the moment, Non-invasive Prenatal Screening in France is neither authorized, nor listed in its nomenclature, nor recommended in its screening policy; but it is already certified in France and marketed by the Cerba laboratory who announced to have already practiced 6,600 tests for fetal Trisomy 21.
At the General Direction of Health’s request, the French Supreme Health Authority analyzed the data in the literature regarding the performance of these new tests. The data demonstrate that the detection rate for Trisomy 21 by this screening is greater than 99%, and the rate of false positives less than 1% in the group of women identified to be at risk. But in cases of positive results with this new test, the confirmation of the diagnosis still depends on establishing the fetal karyotype following amniocentesis or Chorionic villus sampling.
The French Supreme Health Authority considers that the current means of screening Trisomy 21 should therefore be reviewed. The French National Consultative Ethics Committee also gave a favorable opinion for these tests in April 2013. The Supreme Health Authority will conduct this work with experts and health professionals, notably by consulting the results of the French studies in progress.
In its evaluation, the Supreme Health Authorities must take into account ethical, economical and organizational stakes, to specifically define the place for these tests in the screening strategy for Trisomy 21 in France.
The possibilities of Non-invasive Prenatal Screening will now go above and beyond research for Trisomy 21, since the fetal genome can be entirely sequenced. For Dr. François Jacquemard, obstetrical gynecologist, and coordinator at the American Hospital in Paris and one of the 49 multi-disciplinary Prenatal Diagnostic Centres certified in France: « With access to fetal DNA, we enter a new era ». To which Jean-Yves Nau, journalist and medical doctor, responds: « He didn’t say which era we are entering. And that is really a shame. »
Via these tests, potential handicaps will be known before the 12-week pregnancy limit allowed for an abortion. In this manner, there would be no more testing, nor possible complementary exams or discussions before medical interruptions of pregnancy. It’s therefore an open road towards « eugenic » abortions.
by NexDev | November 20, 2015 | Palliative care
One month before the entry into force of the new law on care for the end of life and on « medical help to die », which will legalize euthanasia voted in June 2014, the Quebec Health Minister, M. Barrette, announced on November 16, 2015 a plan for Palliative Care 2015-2020.
This plan has nine priorities, among which is equitable access to palliative care services and an increase in the number of beds for palliative care, the development of training the health-care personnel, informing the population by awareness campaigns…« Law 52 includes medical help to die, palliative sedation, but it first and foremost a law for access to quality palliative care everywhere in the country, as the patient chooses» the minister declared during a press conference.
The Health Minister labeled the current palliative care as « dysfunctional », which leads to questions about the pertinence of debates on the end of life in Quebec, which resulted in a law for euthanasia.
Meeting in Montreal last October 30, the professional and citizen groups engaged against euthanasia emphasize, “the option of euthanasia certainly procures the illusion of control, but there is no doubt that it will erode the diligence and imagination in medical care, as much for those with chronic handicaps as for those who are seriously affected by illness. (…) We reject the concept that euthanasia constitutes any kind of health care whatsoever.”
Alliance VITA agrees with this assessment: pretending to develop palliative care, and at the same time legalizing euthanasia and terminal sedation, is an illusion since the two procedures are contradictory. Palliative care is incompatible with euthanasia.
by NexDev | November 19, 2015 | Bioethics, Medically Assisted Procreation
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in July 2014, addressed a draft Resolution (Doc. 13562) on “Human Rights and ethical questions related to gestational surrogacy”.
A preliminary report and a draft resolution will be presented for vote by the members of the social issues commission on Monday, November 23 in Paris. The Resolution – whose content is still confidential – should be submitted for a final vote at the Plenary Assembly in Strasbourg at the beginning of January.
No Maternity Traffic, of which Alliance VITA is an active member, warns about the dangers of this report and asks the deputies of the Council of Europe to firmly oppose this attempt to impose the liberalization of Gestational Surrogacy in Europe.
Alliance VITA invites you to sign and endorse No Maternity Traffic’s European petition, which already has 95,000 signatures, to ask for a universal ban on gestational surrogacy. Every signature bears weight before the Council of Europe who must vote on this report at the beginning of 2016. To sign, click here.
Excerpt from the Press Release:
No Maternity Traffic is concerned about the orientation of this text, which accepts the practice of Gestational Surrogacy and proposes recommendations in this direction. Under the cover “of providing framework” for Surrogacy, such a resolution would validate the actual principle of Gestational Surrogacy.
No Maternity Traffic denounces that neither an association specialized in women’s rights nor the rights of children, nor any citizen’s movement were auditioned.
No Maternity Traffic is astonished that the drafting of this Resolution was confided to a gestational surrogacy activist. Indeed, as a gynecologist specialized in reproductive medicine, Petra De Sutter performs Gestational Surrogacies (1) taking advantage of the lack of clarity in the Belgian legislation.
Furthermore, she actually helps bypassing the ban on Gestational Surrogacy in Europe by accepting among her clients citizens of countries where Surrogacy is banned, notably French citizens.
The Resolution – whose content remains confidential – should be submitted for the final vote at the plenary Assembly at the beginning of January 2016, in Strasbourg.
This Resolution will have an important influence on the European Court of Human Rights’ decisions and on the current work at the Hague Conference.”
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Access No Maternity Traffic’s Press Release
