Bioethics: two major tendencies

The États Généraux of Bioethics “have undoubtedly marked an important stage in the field of participative democracy” and “shown the maturity of public opinion on the question”, declared Father Bruno Cazin, episcopal vicar of the diocese of Lille, haematologist and Vice-Rector of the Catholic University of the same city, summing up the wide-ranging debate conducted in France from 4 February to 23 June 2009 ahead of the planned reform of the national law on bioethics in the spring of this year.The “États Généraux of Bioethics”. In view of the progress made by research and the complexity of the questions and social challenges at stake, the State expressed the wish that the parliamentary debate on the reform of the law of 2004 – which substituted the previous law of 1999 – be preceded by a process of consultation, namely, the “États Généraux (States General) of Bioethics”, as a way of officially gathering the views of public opinion. To this end an Executive Committee was set up. It promoted three citizens’ forums (At Marseilles, Rennes and Strasbourg on 9, 11 and June 2009), followed on 23 June by a final conference in Paris, during which the “Final Report of the States General” was delivered to the Head of State to be transmitted to Parliament. The Catholic Church of France also participated in the consultation, establishing to this end a special Work Group chaired by Archbishop Pierre d’Ornellas of Rennes, which promoted an all-round reflection on the various bioethical issues involving thousands of people in all dioceses through websites, meetings and publications. This consultation (on which see Sir Europe no. 68/2009) was then summed up by Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, Archbishop of Bordeaux and Vice-President of the CCEE (Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe), at the CCEE plenary (Paris, 1-4 October 2009). “We did not content ourselves – he had explained on that occasion – with drafting a statement for the time when a vote on the law would take place; we wished to participate actively in the reflection”. He warned: “The future parliamentary debate may still hold out surprises. It is better to remain alert”.Five reports for a law. The Report of the States General is added to those of the national Agency of Biomedicine (ABM), the Parliamentary Office for the evaluation of technological and scientific decisions (OPECST), the Council of State and the Parliamentary Mission of Information. Despite their differences, the conclusions of these five reports – a résumée of which was presented by the French Catholic daily “La Croix” (16/02) – clearly show a position favourable to research on the human embryo, but at the same time reveal their opposition to medically assisted conception for homosexual couples or single women, and the practice of renting out wombs. “The dominant idea – comments Marianne Gomez – is that medicine must maintain its own true vocation: being able to respond to health problems without extending its own tasks to charge after people’s desires”. On the other hand, the five reports revealed sharp divergences on such questions as post mortem embryo transfer and the anonymity of donors. This demonstrates, according to Gomez, “an unresolved ethical tension between two major tendencies: on the one hand, the aspiration of the child to know his/her own origins, and on the other the desire to preserve the link of filiation”.A delicate balance. “What choice will the legislator make?” asks Dominique Quinio, editor in chief of “La Croix”. Summing up the work of the États Généraux, she observes that France “is striving to offer a framework to biomedical science, without gagging it, and without losing sight of the dignity of the person, or the good deriving from new breakthroughs in medical science”. The legislator in sum must try to achieve a “delicate balance”, by avoiding the temptation to let itself be “inebriated by the idea of man’s total self-domination”, and by permitting the exploration of “promising avenues of research”. According to Quinio, “the terms of the law on some points will be in contradiction with the teaching of the Church, but in any case more restrictive bans will be maintained than those in force in neighbouring countries. This is a unique feature – she concludes – that should be emphasized and would be desirable in other fundamental debates”. For his part, Fr. Cazin points out that “no consensus was reached” on the proposition that the embryo, “endowed with dignity”, cannot constitute an object of research; however, what did emerge from the States General is the widespread recognition “that man is incapable of saying the last word about man”. According to the Vice-Rector of the Catholic University of Lille, “there’s a strong recognition that the law cannot be towed by scientific research; on the contrary it is scientific reason that must submit to the needs of ethics”. “The States General – he concludes – have permitted our society to liberate itself from two obstacles that are usually injurious to reflection: on the one hand the fascination of progress, on the other the emotional and compassionate challenges linked to these questions”.