The acceptability of assisted reproductive technology among French lay people

Abstract

Objective

to find out what is the range of French lay people’s positions concerning assisted reproductive technology. Background: Legislation and religious positions regarding assisted reproductive technology (ART) vary considerably from one country to another and from one religious tradition to another. The few studies of people’s opinions, mostly in the USA, also show wide variation. The full range of French lay people’s personal positions concerning ART was examined. Methods: Three hundred and fifty-one participants were presented with stories composed according to a five-factor within-subject design: the purpose of the procedure (e.g. trying to repair a marriage), the origin of the sperm, the origin of the egg, the number of children in the family, and the person to whom the embryo is transferred (e.g. a surrogate mother). They assessed the extent to which ART would be, in each case, an acceptable procedure. Results: Five qualitatively different positions were identified by cluster analysis: (i) gamete donation (27%), (ii) family donation (13%), (iii) in vitro combination of spouses’ gametes (22%), (iv) mainly acceptable (15%), and (v) care and love (23%). Conclusion: Not a single participant considered ART as unacceptable in itself. Participants’ positions can be seen as compatible with current law either in France or in other countries such as Germany and India; that is, within-country variation in views about ART largely parallels between-country variation. A huge majority of people agreed, however, on one point: children must not be conceived in order to serve others’ interests.

Keywords:

• Assisted reproductive technology
• acceptability
• personal positions
• France

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Mélanie Bohren, Marion Froment, Julius Le Duff, Carole Léger, Pamela Léon, and Anca Miculita for their help in gathering the data.