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"From all my research, I cannot see there is a ‘good’ version of surrogacy," she tells the Daily Mail. Even when the surrogate mother doesn't donate her eggs, the reality remains that "it's a woman's body that's being rented out, and it's a baby who will be separated from its mother at birth", whereas "it's to her that it feels connected". And in countries that prohibit so-called commercial surrogacy, considerable sums of money are nevertheless paid as compensation. Olivia Maurel also cites th...

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Guy Dembour was keen to set up a multidisciplinary medical program to monitor the overall development of children with Down's syndrome, who present difficulties in a number of areas (cardiac, auditory, visual, etc.). Monitoring begins with an assessment of the child's development, highlighting positive aspects and building on achievements. We then work with the parents, who are given the means to take concrete action through everyday activities and games they can play with their child. The...

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The bill is particularly opposed by many healthcare professionals, who see the constitutionalization of abortion as a direct threat to their freedom of conscience. In the event of the constitutionalization of abortion, Emmanuel Sapin, Professor of Pediatric and Neonatal Surgery, calls for the right of healthcare professionals to conscientious objection to abortion to be enshrined in the Constitution. In a letter co-signed by numerous healthcare professionals...

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In 2022, this same professor said: "Euthanasia is not the right word, because the law on euthanasia does not apply here. [Euthanasia] is based on the capacity to give consent, which the patient can request for his or her own end of life. These children are not always capable of doing so. Active interruption of life is the right term". Beyond the impossibility for these children to consent to such a serious and irreversible act, the major ethical concern remains the fact of considering...

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This case of Mortier v. Belgium, named after the applicant, the son of the euthanized person, was the first case in which the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) was called upon to assess the compatibility of euthanasiaalready practiced with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Tom Mortier alleged a violation of his mother's right to life, protected by Article 2 of the Convention, and of his right to respect for his private and family life, protected by Article 8 of the...

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As a reminder, the law passed in 2020 first provides that 'no written or unwritten clause can prevent a doctor from performing euthanasia'. This provision aims to de facto prohibit retirement homes or hospitals whose care project excludes the fact of ending the life of their residents or patients by euthanasia, and which favor accompaniment through palliative care. The applicant citizens, as well as the European Institute of Bioethics, the intervener in the action, considered that such a...

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At a time of accelerated development of vaccines against Covid-19, being well-informed is important, especially regarding the ethics of how these vaccines are developed and then produced and tested. The potential use of aborted fetuses' cell lines at any stage of the process is key for the ethical discernment. The Charlotte Lozier Institute in the United States has published, on the basis of a rigorous analysis of the scientific literature and the results of clinical trials, a det...

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More broadly, with the expression "reproductive and sexual rights", the resolution calls on the European Union (EU) Member States to guarantee access to: "comprehensive sexual education; modern contraceptive methods; care during childbirth and the pre- and post-natal periods; obstetric care; new-born care; services providing safe and legal abortions; prevention and treatment of HIV infection and other STIs; services to detect, prevent and treat sexual and gender-based violence; treatment of ca...

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In terms of the physician's intentions, the study distinguishes three situations. In the first scenario, the physician does not intend to cause or hasten the baby's death, but considers the potential effect of hastening death (e.g., decision not to administer antibiotics, administration of morphine or sedatives). The second scenario consists in the situation where the potential effect of hastening death is not the primary goal but is partly aimed at by the physician. The third scenario is that...

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The law recognizes a new right, the right to euthanasia, which, according to the law, consists in the death of a person caused in a direct and intentional manner after the informed, explicit, and repeated request of that person, in a context of suffering caused by an incurable illness and which is conceived by the person as intolerable. The text of the law tries to ground this new right on other constitutional rights, such as the right to life, the right to physical integrity, the right to hum...

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