Paris (AFP)

Should we allow or not the diagnosis of trisomy 21 before implanting an embryo by PMA? This sensitive debate began Friday night in the Assembly, with a first vote largely negative, after a series of testimonies, sometimes poignant.

The measure does not appear in the bill bioethics, but is proposed by some members, including the majority. The discussion will continue Monday night with other amendments to this effect.

Preimplantation diagnosis (PGD) is currently reserved for couples who have already had a child seriously ill or died due to a genetic disease (cystic fibrosis, myopathy, cancer linked to a genetic factor ...).

It allows you to select embryos that do not carry this mutation - and only that one - to prevent the birth of a second child.

Some MEPs, such as the geneticist Philippe Berta, would also like to allow a count of the chromosomes of the embryo to identify trisomies and avoid a "test" to the women concerned, while screening for trisomy is allowed a few weeks later during pregnancy (prenatal).

"What is the point of making women undergo a course of in vitro fertilization, then a pre-natal diagnosis and an abortion", judge this deputy MoDem, co-rapporteur of the law.

On the verge of tears, Vincent Thiébaut (LREM) "father of profound deaf twins born by IVF" acknowledged having "long asked the question" of PGD for trisomy and other pathologies.

But "the suffering, the pain, the guilt that may have been part of our humanity, do not open the Pandora's box of standardization. (...) My children do what I am. opened my eyes to things that I could not have imagined, "he testified, before being applauded in the hemicycle.

"I hear this extremely poignant testimony, but I would like to return to the ethical issue," responded Anne-Christine Lang (LREM), in favor of this IPR for couples whose first child is already sick. "For me, the ethical question has been decided" (...) "from the time when we have generalized blood tests on pregnant women to detect trisomy 21".

"Moving from a pre-natal diagnosis to a pre-implantation diagnosis completely changes the philosophy," says Health Minister Agnès Buzyn, reluctant.

"The next step will be to find other rare and very severe diseases" and "why not propose one day to all couples who would like to have somewhere the myth of the healthy child", a- she warned, before being followed by a large majority of deputies, 25 votes against 7.

© 2019 AFP