Title IV: Medically assisted procreation

Medically assisted procreation refers to clinical and biological practices enabling in vitro conception, the preservation of gametes, germinal tissue and embryos, embryo transfer and artificial insemination. The list of biological procedures used in medically assisted procreation is set by decree of the Minister of Health after consultation with the Biomedicine Agency. A Conseil d’Etat decree specifies the procedures and criteria for including procedures on this list. The criteria relate in…

Medically assisted procreation is intended to fulfil a parental project. Any couple consisting of a man and a woman or two women or any unmarried woman shall have access to medically assisted procreation following individual interviews with the members of the multidisciplinary clinical-biological medical team carried out in accordance with the procedures set out in article L. 2141-10. This access may not be subject to any difference in treatment, in…

An embryo may only be conceived in vitro within the framework and in accordance with the objectives of medically assisted procreation as defined in Article L. 2141-1. Taking into account the state of medical techniques, the members of the couple or the unmarried woman may consent in writing to an attempt being made to fertilise a number of oocytes which may make it necessary to preserve embryos, with the intention…

Research carried out in the context of medically assisted procreation may be carried out on gametes intended to constitute an embryo or on an embryo conceived in vitro before or after its transfer for the purpose of gestation, if each member of the couple or the unmarried woman consents. Within this framework, no intervention designed to modify the genome of the gametes or the embryo may be undertaken. Such research…

I. – The two members of the couple or the unmarried woman whose embryos are conserved are consulted each year as to whether they maintain their parental project. If they confirm in writing that they maintain their parental project, the conservation of their embryos is continued. II. – If they no longer have a parental project, the two members of the couple or the unmarried woman consent in writing to:…

The two members of the couple or the unmarried woman may consent in writing to the embryos stored being accepted by another couple or another unmarried woman under the conditions set out in article L. 2141-6, including, in the case of the two members of a couple, in the event of the death of one of them. The two members of the couple or the unmarried woman are informed of…

A couple or an unmarried woman meeting the conditions set out in article L. 2141-2 may foster an embryo. The two members of the couple or the unmarried woman must give their prior consent, before a notary, to the fostering of the embryo. The conditions and effects of this consent are governed by article 342-10 of the Civil Code. The couple or unmarried woman receiving the embryo and the couple…

A human embryo cannot be conceived or used for commercial or industrial purposes.

Only embryos conceived in compliance with the fundamental principles set out in Articles 16 to 16-8 of the Civil Code and the provisions of this Title may enter or leave the territory to which this Code applies. These movements of embryos are exclusively intended to enable the continuation of the parental project of the couple or unmarried woman concerned. They are subject to the prior authorisation of the Agence de…

The implementation of medically assisted procreation is preceded by individual interviews of the requesting woman or couple with one or more doctors and other health professionals from the centre’s multidisciplinary clinical-biological medical team, comprising in particular a psychiatrist, psychologist or nurse with psychiatric expertise, who may be from outside the centre. Where necessary, the team calls on a professional registered on the list mentioned in the second paragraph of article…