the partial lifting of anonymity for donors comes into effect from September 1

One year after the promulgation of the last bioethics law, opening medically assisted procreation (PMA) to female couples and unmarried women, it is for the entry into force of a major provision of the text that the centers for the study and conservation of human eggs and sperm (Cecos). From 1er September, the donors of gametes (sperm and oocytes) who go to these donation centers will have to consent to the communication of non-identifying information (such as age at the time of donation, socio-professional situation, number of ‘children…) and identifiers (surname, first name and date of birth). If they refuse, their donation will not be accepted.

Thanks to this provision, people born of these gifts will be able, if they wish, from their majority, to access this information by requesting a commission specially created to respond to their requests, which will be chaired by a magistrate. judicial. Its work will also begin on 1er September, to respond already to the requests of adults born from donations subject to the strict regime of anonymity which has prevailed until now.

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For the centres, this new stage comes against a backdrop of strong growth in assisted reproduction requests with a third-party donor. According to the Biomedicine Agency, which oversees the implementation of the bioethics law, for the first quarter of 2022 alone, 5,126 requests for first consultation from new audiences (single women and lesbian couples) were recorded. . They were around 6,800 in the last quarter of 2021. “We had a first boom in the Cecos with the opening of access to sperm donation to new profiles, and the entry into force of oocyte preservation for societal purposes, and there the recruitment of new donors, it is the second part of the adventure of this bioethics law”sums up Professor Florence Eustache, vice-president of the Cecos federation.

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“Unprecedented mobilization”

During the parliamentary debates preceding the adoption of the law of August 2, 2021, some health professionals had expressed their fear that the partial lifting of donor anonymity would automatically lead to a drop in donations. On this point, the Cecos are now quite reassuring. “For two or three years, we have been asking donors questions about their position in relation to access to origins, and the vast majority of them seem open to this possibility.cautiously advances Professor Catherine Patrat, head of Cecos at Cochin Hospital in Paris. It remains to be seen whether this will be validated by the signing of their consent, which will be requested from September. »

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