REACTION
As the review of the Bioethics Act begins on Tuesday in the Assembly, this is a report that will certainly fuel debate on one of the key measures: the extension of the PMA to all women. The Academy of Medicine has indeed taken a position on Saturday with serious doubts about this measure. The Academy believes that "the deliberate conception of a child deprived of a father" is "not without risks".
What is particularly pointed out is the consequences of the absence of a father on the psychological development of the child, as explained at the microphone of Europe 1 Jean-François Mattei, member of the Academy and former Minister of Health. "We do not always know what a father brings, but we know what his absence causes: a psychological disorder, a lack at the time of development," said the specialist physician in pediatrics and medical genetics.
"A child wanted by two women will not lack love, not at all, but a child is also built in life, he needs to project himself, to have models, to refer to the other sex that the one who surrounds him at home, he can not help asking questions "about his biological father," continues Jean-François Mattei.
Counter-arguments deemed "unconvincing"
"The argument regularly put forward to reject the risk for the child is based on certain evaluations, mainly in some Anglo-Saxon and European countries, indicating the absence of a proven impact on the future of the child", writes the Academy in his report. But it "does not consider very convincing these data methodologically, in number of cases and in duration of observation on children who have not always reached the age of existential questions".
The bioethics bill will be debated from Tuesday in the Assembly, promising intense debates on the extension of the PMA to all women. According to its statutes, the National Academy of Medicine can be seized of a request for opinion by the government and can also be self-sufficient on any question concerning the domains of the health and the medical ethics.