The French Law on Bioethics and its Limitations: Challenges for the Future from a Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Abstract On 4 August 2021 LOI n° 2021-1017 du 2 août 2021 relative à la bioéthique, a French law on bioethics, came into force. Among the most noteworthy legislative developments are: access to reproductive treatments for all women regardless of sexual orientation; the incorporation of a new way of determining legal parenthood with respect to pregnant women’s female partners via acknowledgment, and the abolition of donor anonymity. With this reform, the French legal system has aligned itself with many others in Europe with respect to reproductive rights and the right of children conceived by these means to know their biological origins. However, there are also a number of controversial issues that French lawmakers decided not to address, and this article aims to comment on these. Some of the reflections here are comparative and refer especially to (i) the possibility of post-mortem fertilization; (ii) access to certain techniques such as the ROPA method, and finally (iii) transgender persons’ potential access to reproductive techniques. The conclusions are that all these aspects should have been included in the legislative reform.