- The bioethics bill arrives in the Senate on Tuesday, with one of its flagship proposals: medically assisted procreation (PMA) for all women.
- The project, already voted at first reading in the National Assembly, must be discussed in the upper house until February 4.
- Amended by members of Parliament and senators, what is the status of the bill? "20 Minutes" takes stock.
A new step towards PMA for all women. This emblematic measure of bioethics law arrives before the Senate with a right-wing majority on Tuesday. Passed (and adopted) by the Assembly, the project has undergone many modifications since its inception. 20 Minutes reported on these changes to the original text.
As in the National Assembly, the debates promise to be passionate about this text which deals with science, society but also ethics. Some 280 amendments have been tabled for the entire bill by senators. It is almost 10 times less than at the Assembly. Passed before the special Senate committee, set up to examine the text, the opening of medically assisted procreation (PMA) to couples of women and single women already received a first green light on January 8.
What changes have been made by the special committee of the Senate?
At the initiative of co-rapporteur LR Muriel Jourda, opposed to the extension of the PMA, the senators maintained, for heterosexual couples, the criterion of infertility medically diagnosed or the non-transmission of a disease of a particular severity, justifying a PMA. They also reserved that this process be covered by health insurance only for requests based on a medical criterion.
The special committee adopted without modification the article relating to the parentage of a child born of an LDC by a couple of women. Regarding access to the origins of people born from a gamete donation, the senators distinguished access to "non-identifying data", which would be irrevocably accepted by future donors before donation, and access to the identity of donors, which should be the subject of consent from the donor at the time of the access request.
On the scientific side, the senators even went a little further than the National Assembly, for example by increasing from 14 to 21 days the culture of embryos within the framework of research protocols. They also authorized, under conditions, genetic tests for genealogical purposes, or even enlarged, on an experimental basis and in a strictly supervised manner, the use of pre-implantation diagnosis for chromosomal abnormalities.
What modifications had been made by members of the Assembly?
After being debated at first reading, this article 1 of the vast bill had finally been adopted by 55 votes to 17, on September 27. The Assembly thus approved the PMA for lesbian couples and single women. It provided for reimbursement by the social security system, at an additional cost of 15 million euros per year. PMA for transgender men or post-mortem PMA had, however, been rejected.
What are the chances of the bill passing in the Senate?
The result looks tight. In an LR majority Senate, the upper house could validate this flagship provision of the text. "A fight is brewing," predicts socialist leader Patrick Kanner, while the left is overwhelmingly in favor of the measure. Part of the right - about two-thirds of the group Les Républicains according to its president Bruno Retailleau - is fundamentally opposed to it. But difficult to predict the outcome: on subjects that relate to the intimate, the freedom to vote is traditionally required and personal positions exceed partisan divisions, upsetting the arithmetic logic.
To protest against this law before its passage to the Senate, about 26,000 people marched Sunday at the call of the collective "Marchons Enfants!" Which brings together 22 associations including the Manif pour tous, according to a statement by the independent Occurrence firm. They were 41,000 according to the prefecture of Paris.
Health
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Society
PMA for all: Marie-Clémence, Catholic and homosexual, recounts her journey and her vision of the Manif pour tous
- Bioethics law
- Society
- National Assembly
- Senate
- LDCs