Chapter II: Respect for the human body

The law ensures the primacy of the individual, prohibits any attack on his or her dignity and guarantees respect for the human being from the beginning of his or her life.

Everyone has the right to respect for his or her body. The human body is inviolable. The human body, its elements and products may not be the subject of a property right.

The respect due to the human body does not cease with death. The remains of deceased persons, including the ashes of those whose bodies have given rise to cremation, must be treated with respect, dignity and decency.

The judge may prescribe any appropriate measures to prevent or stop unlawful interference with the human body or unlawful acts involving elements or products thereof, including after death.

The integrity of the human body may only be infringed in the event of medical necessity for the person concerned or exceptionally in the therapeutic interest of others. The consent of the person concerned must be obtained beforehand except in cases where his or her condition makes necessary a therapeutic intervention to which he or she is not in a position to consent.

No one may harm the integrity of the human species. Any eugenic practice tending to organise the selection of persons is prohibited. Any intervention whose purpose is to bring about the birth of a child genetically identical to another person, whether living or deceased, is prohibited. Without prejudice to research tending to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, no transformation may be made to genetic characteristics with the aim…

Agreements having the effect of conferring a proprietary value on the human body, its elements or its products are void.

No remuneration may be allocated to a person who lends himself to an experiment on his person, to the removal of elements from his body or to the collection of its products.

Any agreement concerning procreation or gestation on behalf of another person is null and void.

No information enabling both the person who has donated an element or product of their body and the person who has received it to be identified may be disclosed. The donor may not know the identity of the recipient, nor may the recipient know the identity of the donor. In the event of therapeutic necessity, only the doctors of the donor and of the recipient may have access to information…