by Alliance VITA | April 30, 2021 | News, Artificial intelligence
In Brussels, on 21 April 2021, the EU Commissioners presented draft regulations for artificial intelligence (AI).
Following recent years of discussions, the Commission’s alleged goal is to “turn Europe into the global hub for trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI);”
In its press release, the European Commission announced that the combination of the “first-ever legal framework on AI” and a “new Coordinated Plan with Member states” will “guarantee the safety and fundamental rights of people and businesses, while strengthening AI uptake, investment and innovation across the EU.”
Primarily based on risk assessment, the regulation has created categories of “unacceptable, high, limited and minimal risks”. These categories are illustrated in the following examples.
- Any AI classified as an “unacceptable risk” will be prohibited. This includes “AI systems that are considered a clear threat to the safety, livelihoods and rights of people.” Examples would include systems that manipulate human behavior to circumvent users’ free will, and systems that allow “social scoring” by governments.
- Any AI identified as “high risk” will have to comply with strict obligations before they can be put on the market. Examples include transport systems that could endanger the life and health of citizens; systems used in education and employment (scoring of exams, CV-sorting software…); law enforcement; robot-assisted surgery; or credit scoring which may deny loans to some citizens. All REMOTE biometric identification systems based on AI are particularly considered as high risk. As a basic principle their use in real time, in public spaces for law enforcement purposes is banned, with only rare exceptions (when strictly necessary to search for a missing child, or to identify a suspect of a serious criminal offence).
- “Limited risk” AIs will have specific transparency obligations. When using AI systems such as chatbots, for example, users should be made aware that they are interacting with a machine so they can make an informed decision of whether to continue or not. Another example which must be clearly transparent is the “deep fake”, which reproduces an individual’s voice or his image to have him say or do what he wants.
- “Minimal risk” AI will be freely allowed (video games, spam filters, etc.).
The EU draft regulation also stipulates fines and penalties of up to 6% of global turnover.
Regarding facial recognition, consumer protection organizations and several MPs consider this provision to be insufficient, thus a heated debate in the European Parliament can be expected.
by Alliance VITA | April 28, 2021 | News, Abortion
On April 19, 2021, the Meaux Correctional Court convicted a 21-year-old Frenchman of violence and death threats against his girlfriend for attempting to force her to have an abortion; he received a sentence of 15 months, with 8 months of unconditional imprisonment.
During the night of April 14th, the man startled the young woman at her home and took her under duress to Tremblay Hospital in Seine Saint-Denis to force her to abort. The young woman who was eight weeks pregnant, unsuccessfully tried to have the reception desk personnel intervene. She was finally able to call the police using a nurse’s cell phone.
During the court hearing, the man admitted that he did not want a child, due to the fact that his parents were separated, and that his girlfriend had left him for another. The young woman provided the court with evidence of on-going harassment, violence and threats for several days.
The Chairman of the tribunal declared that “abortion is a woman’s right, and only the right of a woman,”. This very ideological viewpoint is far removed from the complex reality. For example, men often exert pressure on women, not only through physical violence, as in this case, but also insidiously by pressuring them psychologically, by threatening to leave or by rejecting the woman if she announces that she is pregnant. Alliance VITA’s listening service hears cases like that on a daily basis.
Regarding the prevalence of violence against pregnant women, the official figures state that “violence is observed in 3 to 8% of all pregnancies”, and that “the rate of violence is still 3 to 4 times higher in the event of an unwanted pregnancy”. When she was Minister for Women’s Rights in 2014, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem recommended that the planned medical consultation at 4-months pregnancy be used to detect violence against women. However, whenever an unplanned pregnancy is announced, women have to be protected from coercion and violence at a much earlier date.
by Alliance VITA | April 20, 2021 | News, Human embryo research
Monkey embryos have recently been used in an experiment with human cells to create man-monkey chimeras.
Scientists have been combining cells of different animal species since 1969, when the French biologist Nicole Le Douarin first created quail-chicken embryos, although the experiments were limited to creating animal chimeras.
In recent years however, various researchers around the world have been creating partly human chimeras. For example, human cells were incorporated into pig embryos in 2017 and into sheep embryos in 2018.
Stem Cell Reports has just published the results from the only team in France conducting research on chimeras. In this experiment scientists injected human cells known as induced pluripotent cells (iPS), into a closely related primate, macaque monkey embryos, which then developed in the laboratory for three days. These iPS cells are differentiated human cells that have been reprogrammed to regain their former non-specialized state as pluripotent stem cells, so they can become any kind of body tissue. The team compared mice and monkey embryonic stem cells which are naturally pluripotent to human cells which had been reprogrammed to be pluripotent, which were injected into rabbit and monkey embryos. The results demonstrated that when mouse stem cells were injected into the embryos, they all became chimeric (the cells “mixed together” continued embryonic development). However, when the embryos were injected with human or monkey embryonic stem cells, only 20-30% became chimeric; integrating only 2 or 3 of the human or monkey cells.
Almost simultaneously researchers in the U.S. and China also announced in the magazine Cell that they had created embryos by combining human and macaque monkey cells. They studied the survival of these human-monkey chimeras for a period of 19 days, the stage at which the primate nervous system begins to develop. Six days after the monkey embryos had been created, each one of the 132 embryos was injected with 25 human pluripotent stem cells. After 9 days, half of them were chimerical, but after 13 days only a third of them remained chimerical. Survival continued to decline until day 19, when only three chimeras remained alive. The overall results can be considered rather poor, since there were only 5- 7 % of human cells in the chimera.
In France, the law prohibits creating transgenic embryos and chimeras, although it could soon be authorized in article 17 of the pending bioethics bill whereby animal embryos could be injected with human embryonic cells or iPS cells. One amendment even considered allowing female uteruses to be implanted with these embryos to give birth to “baby” human-animal chimeras. Although the National Assembly has endorsed, the Senate has voiced its opposition.
The reasons given for continuing this research are more or less obscure, misleading or illusory. Some dream of manufacturing human organs in animals, to provide grafts for transplants. Pierre Savatier, a researcher at INSERM, (French National Institute of Health and Medical Research), who leads the French chimera research and advocates the authorization of such practices, acknowledges that it is a “science fiction scenario”. French law prohibits creating chimeras, but since the 2011 bioethics law did not anticipate specifying the use of iPS cells, this research team nonetheless continues its experiments, considering that what is not specifically forbidden is allowed…
Pierre Savatier declares that “the first major areas that could benefit from this research are reproductive medicine and cell therapy, particularly in the fight against cell degeneration. Currently, it is obvious that improvements in the knowledge of human embryo development is essential, in order to improve assisted reproductive technology (ART) for in vitro fertilization.”
Very few teams around the world are working on this particular type of research and although they are still in the phase of early development, the Council of State has already published warnings of the “risks associated with violating the red line between man and animal” in its’ 2018 report. “There is a risk of creating new zoonoses (infections transmitted from vertebrates to humans and vice versa); the risk of human features and even human consciousness in animals (if the injection of human cells induces changes in animals, for example by cell migration to the animal’s brain, where it could lead to the development of consciousness with human characteristics.)” Finally, another risk to be taken into account is that human cells could differentiate into gametes (sexual cells) in the animal embryo.
These experiments cross the natural inherent boundary line between humans and animals and pretend that there could be no limit, based on so-called superior ethical reasons, imposed on scientific research.
by Alliance VITA | April 20, 2021 | News, Family
On April 15, the draft law to better protect minors from sexual crimes, offences and incest was unanimously adopted at second reading in the French National Assembly.
This bill establishes an age of “non-consent” at 15, under which a child cannot be considered to have willingly engaged in a sexual act with an adult. In cases of incest, the age has been set at 18.
Introduced by Senator Annick Billon (centrist), the bill should provide children with better protection from sex crimes. Proving that the perpetrator used violence, coercion, threat or surprise for rape charges if the victim is under age 15, (or in the case of incest, under age 18) will no longer be a prerequisite.
The draft legislation establishes that oral-genital acts committed by an adult on a victim under the age of 15 is now considered to be rape. The legislation also proposes an extension to the statute of limitations for the raped in cases where the adult goes on to rape other minors. Adults inciting children under the age of 15 to engage in sexual practices via the Internet can now face prison sentences up to ten years for “sextortion”. In addition, there will be harsher criminal sentences for engaging in prostitution with minors under the age of 15.
Although the bill significantly improves protection for minors, those involved in child protection continue to criticize two clauses.
- The hotly debated “Romeo and Juliet” clause says punishment should only apply if the difference in age between the adult and the person under 15 is at least five years, to avoid criminalizing sex between teenagers and young adults. In a statement on March 25, 2021, the High Council for Equality (HCE) lamented that “the age gap of 5 years established in the law does not seem to sufficiently take into account the discrepancies in relationships between adults and children”. They recommend that the age gap be reduced to 4 years.
- Another highly controversial clause is a condition of de jure or de facto authority in cases of incest committed by someone other than an older family member. According to the association “Faced with Incest” the bill ruins the definition of incest. The association also deplores the “amazing complexity” introduced by this draft legislation “with no less than 7 different categories of offences to fight incest”.
by Alliance VITA | April 20, 2021 | Family, News
Providing counseling for couples: A groundbreaking study in France highlights that “Regardless of the couple’s legal status, the stability of their relationship has a positive impact on the well-being of individuals and a substantial effect on public finances.”
The survey was conducted by “VersLeHaut”, (meaning “Upward Thinking”) a specialized think-tank for young people, families and education. Specialists in the field and expert civil servants gather with young people and families to think, basing their reflections on scientific studies and research. Their goal is to propose sensible and relevant options adapted to the educational challenges of today.
The recently published https://www.verslehaut.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/p.1-116-VLH-Ruptures-conjugales-Web.pdf 100-page report, is entitled “Preventing Marital Breakdown to Protect Children – Why Government Policies Should Include Counseling for Couples “.
The study was carried out with the assistance of “Familya” and “Aire de Famille”. Familya offers counseling and specialized support for couples, parents and young people, to help prevent family breakups and the precarious situations resulting from separations. Aire de Famille, was the first parental center founded in France which led to the creation of the National Federation of Parental Centers. https://airedefamille.org/ Although sometimes unavoidable, there is a considerable human toll to pay when a family breaks up. In France, although more than 7 out of 10 children live with both parents, every year the number of young people with separated parents continues to increase. The numbers have more than doubled in less than 30 years: 145,000 children in 1993, compared to 380,000 in 2020, according to the “INSEE” statistics (French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies).
The survey lists the main consequences of separation, primarily concerning the relationships between parents and children. In 2018, it was noted that 28% of children lived with just one parent. For minors, 25% were totally deprived of at least one parent 100% of the time (government statistics from “DRESS”). The data also demonstrated that family breakups have an effect on children’s physical and emotional health, and on their performance in school. Children living in single-parent families repeat classes more often in primary school than those living with both parents.
In 2018, according to the annual census recorded by INSEE, 12% of single parents have always lived alone, and almost all single parents are women. Separation strongly impacts living standards with a third of all single-parent households living below the level of poverty. After separation, women experience an average of 20% loss in their standard of living, compared to only a 3% decrease for men.
Single parenthood is not only a heavy burden for a family’s budget, but also for the government’s budget. Indeed, the study shows the impact of public expenses dedicated to separated families on the government financial register. For example, for a modest family with one child, the cost of government allocations for housing and solidarity is approximately 9,500 €/ year.
This study reveals one main point: from a strategic point of view, a government family policy would be beneficial for the stability of couples, as explained by Julien Damon, Political Sciences Professor and Sociologist, at the French Business School, “HEC” (Higher Commercial Studies) who wrote the foreword for the study.
Today, the government family policy is for all parents, and it provides assistance in case of separation, especially by subsidizing family mediation.
The study assesses the impact of the government’s “CCF” services (Counseling for Families and Couples) and reveals the positive effects both for the couples and for public finances of helping the couples stay together.
Out of the 254 couples who received couple counseling, 101 couples “intended to separate,” but ultimately, following counseling, 74 couples decided to stay together. In 73% of cases, the “quality of the relationship was improved” and in 36%, there was a “decrease in conflict”. Thus, following counseling, 73% of separations were avoided.
Julien Damon, author of more than 25 books including “What Do I Know?” dealing with family policies and recomposed families asserts: “It is very important, both for reasons of personal happiness and for state finances, for the government’s family policy to promote the mediations which help couples stay together. This is a factor of success in life as well as for the proper management of public funds.”
