Paris (AFP)
The right-wing Senate finally opposed Tuesday the authorization of genealogical genetic tests, introduced in committee to the bioethics bill.
The Senate voted by 232 votes in favor and 94 against two amendments to delete this provision defended by the government and the CRCE group with a communist majority.
The use of open access genetic tests is currently prohibited in France. They are however easily available on the internet. The special commission charged with examining the bioethics bill had proposed to authorize, by derogation, genetic tests exclusively for genealogical purposes, and under conditions.
The Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn declared herself "deeply unfavorable" to this authorization, affirming that these tests "expose to a multitude of risks, in particular the imprecision of the results".
"They are sometimes used for commercial purposes. In this context, we are not sure that they respect the confidentiality of the data, nor the privacy of the people tested and their entourage", she underlined.
In addition, they "may be diverted for paternity searches".
Co-rapporteur Olivier Henno (centrist), however, argued that their ban "is virtual". "One million French people have used these tests, including 150,000 this year," he said.
The entire LR group voted to withdraw the authorization, with the exception of Catherine Procaccia. The entire PS group voted against the cancellation of the authorization, except Laurence Rossignol and Jean-Michel Houllegatte who voted for it.
© 2020 AFP