EDITORIAL. Bioethics: seek consensus

This is the first time in our country that a bioethics law stirs up such discord. Indeed, after having voted two different texts, deputies and senators did not agree in Commission this week. The law will therefore return to the National Assembly. None of the modifications made by the Senate will be taken into account.

However, on such sensitive laws, parliamentary work always aimed for consensus. The Leonetti law on the end of life was unanimously adopted in 2005. In 2016, parliamentarians reached an agreement in the Commission on the Claeys-Leonetti law.

But for three years, discords have been linked to the bioethics bill. Even the National Ethics Committee (CCNE) failed to reach a consensus: two opinions were issued, including a dissenter, an extremely rare fact recalling the divisions of opinion during the States General of 2018.

Dangerous to accentuate fractures

Concerned about the pandemic, the French do not give parliamentarians a blank check: ” At the moment, explains Jérôme Fourquet in The cross, the French expect the government to focus on crisis management as a priority […] 67% of respondents (Ifop poll – MPT, 2-21) believe that all projects that do not achieve consensus among parliamentarians should be suspended until the end of the state of health emergency. “

Regarding the bioethics bill, two-thirds of those questioned want to suspend it or withdraw it, which most divides elected officials (Ifop poll – MPT, 2-21). These wishes are growing among low-income populations (75%), artisans-traders and those under 35 (73%), even affecting the electorate of the President (59%).

Of course, the deputies of the National Assembly can impose this law without taking into account the work of the Senate. But it would look like a forced passage on such serious subjects: research on the embryo and the making of chimeras; role of medicine extended to the use of medical technology (PMA) for people not suffering from infertility; parentage without father; medical termination of pregnancy until 9^e months for psychosocial distress; conscience clause …

The opening of the PMA, a political and not a bioethical issue, was a campaign promise by Emmanuel Macron. But the pension reform, yet promised, has been postponed. It would be wise to do the same for the bioethics law, especially since the President of the Republic had affirmed the need for a consensus.

In a country where mistrust vis-à-vis political parties is reaching records, it would be worrying if the gap between the French and the deputies widened. It would also be dangerous to accentuate the fractures of the country by seeking to satisfy various special interests. do not forget that “Democratic politics has long found its mainspring in the capacity it had to represent and pacify the important and significant divisions that cross society”, writes Pascal Perrineau (Populism, P. Perrineau, Que sais-je?).

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