The French National Assembly has just given the go-ahead to research on surplus human embryos, but opposed at least for the time being – cloning for therapeutic purposes. This is the result of the overhaul of the bill on bioethics of 1994 containing 29 articles and 300 amendments which the French deputies passed in review from 15 to 18 January 2002. They accepted the use of human embryos for research, with the parents’ consent, according to the protocols authorized by the Government and after the opinion expressed by a human procreation agency. The National Assembly also gave its consent to the creation of human embryos for the evaluation of new methods of assisted procreation. In 1999, a report of the Council of State recommended research on human embryos. It saw no violation to the respect due to human life, if this research were to be conducted on already existing in vitro embryos, “resulting from gifts by couples who had abandoned their plan of becoming parents and decided to suspend their conservation”. The bill on bioethics will shortly pass to the scrutiny of the Senate before returning to the National Assembly for a final reading, after the presidential elections on 21 April.
