PMA and access to origins: a deadline until 2025 for old sperm donations
Frozen sperm stocks, from donations made under old legislation which made the anonymity of the donor possible, can no longer be used for procreation after March 31, 2025, Minister Agnès Firmin announced on Tuesday to the daily Liberation. -The Bodo.
Until then, "the desire is to make maximum use of the existing gametes from the old stock. We give ourselves every chance," said the Minister Delegate for Health Professions, according to an article published at the end of the day. on the online edition of the newspaper.
The government thus sets a maximum period for the use of the old stock of gametes, collected before the entry into force in September 2022 of the bioethics law.
This reform aims to facilitate "access to personal origins": since September 1, 2022, donors must necessarily consent to the future disclosure of their identity to the children who will be born from this donation, if they request it, once they will be adults.
For the time being, however, this aspect of the law has not yet had a concrete effect on medically assisted procreation (PMA), because the specialized teams still use donations made before the change in legislation.
The children resulting from these “old stock” donations will therefore only be able to access the identity of the donor in the future if the latter consents to it – an element that parents who have recourse to assisted reproduction cannot know. when they begin their process.
After March 31, 2025, on the other hand, assisted reproduction will only be carried out with gametes from the "new stock", constituted after September 1, 2022, using donors who have accepted that their identity be transmitted to the child conceived with this donation. if this child, having become an adult, wishes it.
From April 1, 2025, the old frozen sperm stock will be destroyed.
According to data from the Biomedicine Agency, cited by Liberation, the old stock contained 110.000 straws (the packaging of sperm samples) as of December 31, while 17.000 straws from the "new stock" were collected between September 1 and the end of 2022.
Transfers of frozen gametes will be organized between specialized centers across the territory, in order to optimize "stock management", avoid any waste of old straws and "give recipients the best possible chance" of using them, Ms. Firmin-Le Bodo explained.
The Editorial Board (with AFP)
