Rome Newsroom, Jul 10, 2020 / 10:00 am
The archbishop of Paris has criticized the French parliament's decision to debate a controversial bioethics bill which would increase access to in vitro fertilization while the country is still recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.
"Shamelessly, while our country has just gone through a health crisis that brought it to its knees, the government's priority is to have the bioethics bill passed in the National Assembly," Archbishop Michel Aupetit wrote in Le Figaro last week.
Aupetit, who practiced medicine and taught bioethics at a medical school before entering the priesthood, said there was no urgency requiring the French parliament "to force through" in July "this set of laws which affects the very essence of our humanity."
The bioethics bill allows medically assisted procreation for lesbian couples and single women. Currently in France IVF is restricted to married or cohabiting men and women with a diagnosis of infertility.