De Proost Michiel, Johnston Molly
RHEA - Centre for Research on Gender, Diversity & Intersectionality, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
Monash Bioethics Centre, Monash University, ClaytonVictoria, Australia.
Reprod Biomed Online. 2022 Apr;44(4):591-593. doi: 10.1016/j.rbmo.2021.12.002. Epub 2021 Dec 9.
After two years of parliamentary discussion, Emmanuel Macron's government in France enacted the new bioethics law. What stands out in the revision of the bioethics law is the decision to offer partial reimbursement of the clinical procedure costs of 'non-medical' egg freezing, making France the first country in the world to do this. Our contention in this brief commentary is that the recent change in the French law presents an opportunity to reflect on the provision of public funding for egg freezing, including for what reasons funding is justifiable. The medical/non-medical distinction is used to distribute funding for egg freezing in many jurisdictions, worldwide. However, under the revised French bioethics law, this is the first instance where, for the purpose of determining eligibility for funding, the reason for egg freezing is irrelevant as public funding is available for both medical and non-medical egg freezing. This challenges the justification of using the medical/non-medical distinction within funding policies and prompts further consideration about whether this distinction is still relevant to funding decisions.
经过两年的议会讨论，法国总统埃马纽埃尔·马克龙所在的政府颁布了新的生物伦理法。生物伦理法修订案中引人注目的是决定对“非医疗”卵子冷冻的临床程序费用提供部分报销，这使法国成为世界上首个这样做的国家。在这篇简短的评论中，我们的观点是，法国法律最近的这一变化为思考卵子冷冻的公共资金提供创造了契机，包括资金合理提供的理由。在全球许多司法管辖区，医疗/非医疗的区分被用于分配卵子冷冻的资金。然而，根据修订后的法国生物伦理法，这是首次在确定资金资格时，卵子冷冻的原因无关紧要，因为医疗和非医疗卵子冷冻均可获得公共资金。这对在资金政策中使用医疗/非医疗区分的合理性提出了挑战，并促使人们进一步思考这种区分是否仍然与资金决策相关。
