Debate on medically assisted procreation pushed back to 2014

 France’s public debate on medically assisted procreation is now been pushed to early 2014.

Lesbian family with its children Dean Mitchell/Getty Images

 “We cannot have a general status on everything at the same time” said Jean-Claude Amiesen, the president of the Advisory Committee of National Ethics (CCNE), in reference to the public debate on euthanasia.

A report on the status of these two topics was expected to be released in October and November. “It’s this way of governing in this government that is deplorable", said Jean-Vincent Placé, president of a group of environmentalists in the Senate in response to the delay.

“When it’s convenient, we can prepare the Gallois report, that was decided within 12 hours without any discussion about taxes. The moment it turns to discussing medically assisted procreation or dying with dignity, then we have to make a report to the CCNE. This isn’t about discussing either of this topics, it’s just hypocrisy” said Placé.

With the ushering in of gay marriage in France, medically assisted procreation has returned to the heart of discussions relating to the family.

The Prime Minister’s office, Matignon, initially tried to incorporate this into the law for same-sex marriage and adoption. The Socialist party had put pressure to see that an amendment was included, before it took a step back.

In February, changes suggested back in December by both communist and environmental MPs, were rejected. The government then promised that the topic of medically assisted procreation would be discussed in relation to a “family law”. This was announced in March and was expected to be completed by the end of the year.

With the announcement of Taubira's law (same-sex marriage), those in support of gay marriage have been hoping to see medically assisted procreation be extended to homosexual couples.