Access to assisted reproductive technologies in France: the emergence of the patients’ voice

Véronique Fournier, Denis Berthiau, Julie d’Haussy, Philippe BatailleIs there any ethical justification for limiting the reproductive autonomy and not make assisted reproductive technologies available to certain prospective parents? We present and discuss the results of an interdisciplinary clinical ethics study concerning access to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in situations which are considered as ethically problematic in France (overage or sick parents, surrogate motherhood). The study focused on the arguments that people in these situations put forward when requesting access to ART. It shows that requester’s arguments are based on sound ethical values, and that their legitimacy is at least as strong as that of those used by doctors to question access to ART. Results reveal that the three implicit normative arguments that founded the law in 1994, which are still in force after the bioethics law revision in July 2011—the welfare of the child, the illegitimacy of a “right to a child,” and the defense of the so called “social order”—are challenged on several grounds by requesters as reasons for limiting their reproductive autonomy. Although these results are limited to exceptional situations, they are of special interest insofar as they give voice to the requesters’ own ethical concerns in the ongoing political debate over access to ART.

(avec Denis Berthiau, Véronique Fournier et Julie d’Haussy), « Access to assisted reproductive technologies in France : the emergence of the patients ‘voice’ », in Medical Healthcare and Philosophy, February 2013, Volume 16, issue 1, p. 55-68.