13 Biotechnology Law Report 139 (Number 2, March-April 1994)

Doctor John Fletcher of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville was less negative.He questioned whether a child would be seriously upset to learn that he or she had originated inan egg from an abortus and noted that the child probably would find such an origin preferableto the alternative of not having been born at all.

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{BLR 1664} Reproductive Technology.

FRANCE, ITALY SEEK TO BANPOSTMENOPAUSAL PREGNANCIES-- French Health Minister Calls Them Immoral and Dangerous to Health

PARIS, FRANCE 1/94 - Health Minister Dr. Philippe Douste-Blazy of France ispushing a bill that would forbid the artificial impregnation of women who have gone throughmenopause. Approval of the bill by the French Parliament is considered likely. Simone Veil,the Social Affairs Minister, plans to ask the Cabinet to amend the bill to require permissionfrom a judge for any artificial insemination procedure that would create a child not related to theparents.

Italy is pursing similar legislation.Douste-Blazy called such pregnancies, a few of which have been reported from Europe

in recent weeks, both immoral and dangerous to the health of both mother and child. Hewondered what would happen, for example, to a teenager with a mother in her 80s.

Countered writer Elizabeth Badinter: "Nobody has ever banned a 20-year-old girl whois deeply neurotic, addicted to drugs, or has AIDS from having a baby." Observers of theAmerican scene might also think of the many children being raised by grandmothers becausetheir mothers are drug addicted or dying of AIDS.

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