There are 19,000 ART births per year in France.  Infertility treatments are permitted for heterosexual infertile couples with the woman under 43.  Six inseminations or four IVF cycles are paid by government health insurance when done in a public hospital.  The patient will pay a cost differential when using a private clinic.  If a birth occurs, a new set of AI or IVF cycles are free of charge.

Sperm and egg donation are permitted but only with fully anonymous, altruistic donors.  All gamete banks are under public control.  Matching is done by the doctors and patients are not permitted access to donor information.  The criminalization for reimbursement has caused a huge shortage of egg donors, and also a very long wait list.  The result led to reproductive tourism to Belgium for sperm donations and to Spain for oocyte donations.

Traditional and gestational surrogacy have been banned in France since 1994.  Since 1994, infertile couples traveled to more reproductive friendly countries.  As of October 2004, it is no longer a criminal offense to go to a foreign country where surrogacy is permitted.

These legal issues have impacted the French society, and the polls indicate that French people are ready to accept legalization of gestational surrogacy and limited financial reimbursement to egg donors. On June 2008, the French Senate (one of the two parliamentary) released a detailed report in favor of legalization of gestational surrogacy.  It is expected that the French bioethics laws will be changed in 2009 with a strong opportunity for France to enter in the modern world.

Submitted by:
Dominique M. Mennesson
Maisons-Alfort, France
Co-founder of CLARA
Comité de soutien pour la Légalisation de la GPA (Gestation Pour Autrui) et l'Aide à la Reproduction Assistée
http://claradoc.gpa.free.fr/index.php?page=accueil