Calls to ease pre-implantation screening laws in Germany
Call for easing of restrictions on test-tube babies in Germany
Dec 21, 2010, 13:53 GMT
Berlin - A cross-party group of parliamentarians called Tuesday for a relaxation of Germany's strict laws on test-tube babies - paving the way for a conscience vote on the issue next year.
Currently Germany does not allow doctors to screen embryo cells for genetic diseases before they are implanted in the womb. However senior judges refused to convict a doctor for doing the tests, which are known as pre-implantation diagnosis (PID).
The panel, with members from all five parties represented in the German parliament, published a draft bill which they will move in parliament. They want to amend the current law on test-tube pregnancies, which was passed in 1991, before PID was available.
They rejected claims by opponents that couples would end up using the tests, already common in other nations, to select 'designer babies' or to choose in advance whether to have a boy or a girl.
The procedure allows the doctor to check several fertilized ova, or eggs, and pick the healthy one while allowing the others to die.
In modern-day Germany the memory of how the Nazis used euthanasia on handicapped children and the mentally disabled via lethal injections or the gas chambers adds another layer of emotion to the issue.
But those who want to legalise PID said it was right to give couples who know they are at serious risk of passing on a genetic disease a way of ensuring that they bring a healthy child to term.
The current law allowing test-tube pregnancies was passed in 1991, before the science for PID was as advanced as it is now.
Like many other countries, Germany has traditionally relaxed party discipline during votes in parliament on ethical issues involving reproduction. In 1992 Germany allowed abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy after a conscience vote.
Peter Hintze, a Christian Democrat who has campaigned for PID, rejected claims it would lead to discrimination against disabled people, and said the law had to treat living people differently from those who had not yet developed into a human being.
Source in English
NOTE: This article (only english source I could find) doesn't get it 100% right- what these MPs are pushing for is a compromise solution that would keep PID illegal unless parents have a good reason to believe the eggs may be carrying some genetic mutation that would result in a severe disbility,
How do you all feel about these screenings? It's clearly a reproductive rights issue, but since most of the eggs that end up not being implanted have some sort of (severe) disability, I do think there's a discussion about the undelying attitudes there- do you think legalizing these kinds of procedures send a message that we, as a society, would rather people with disabilities would rather never have been born?
It's also interesting to note that this is framed as a conscience issue and not at all a party vote: the proposal described above seems to be a compromise between what the opposition was pushing for (allowing screenings always and leaving choice completely up to parents) and what the governing conservatives want (not legalizing these screenings; also basically a moratorium of late-term abortions, which is a whole other story).
Dec 21, 2010, 13:53 GMT
Berlin - A cross-party group of parliamentarians called Tuesday for a relaxation of Germany's strict laws on test-tube babies - paving the way for a conscience vote on the issue next year.
Currently Germany does not allow doctors to screen embryo cells for genetic diseases before they are implanted in the womb. However senior judges refused to convict a doctor for doing the tests, which are known as pre-implantation diagnosis (PID).
The panel, with members from all five parties represented in the German parliament, published a draft bill which they will move in parliament. They want to amend the current law on test-tube pregnancies, which was passed in 1991, before PID was available.
They rejected claims by opponents that couples would end up using the tests, already common in other nations, to select 'designer babies' or to choose in advance whether to have a boy or a girl.
The procedure allows the doctor to check several fertilized ova, or eggs, and pick the healthy one while allowing the others to die.
In modern-day Germany the memory of how the Nazis used euthanasia on handicapped children and the mentally disabled via lethal injections or the gas chambers adds another layer of emotion to the issue.
But those who want to legalise PID said it was right to give couples who know they are at serious risk of passing on a genetic disease a way of ensuring that they bring a healthy child to term.
The current law allowing test-tube pregnancies was passed in 1991, before the science for PID was as advanced as it is now.
Like many other countries, Germany has traditionally relaxed party discipline during votes in parliament on ethical issues involving reproduction. In 1992 Germany allowed abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy after a conscience vote.
Peter Hintze, a Christian Democrat who has campaigned for PID, rejected claims it would lead to discrimination against disabled people, and said the law had to treat living people differently from those who had not yet developed into a human being.
Source in English
NOTE: This article (only english source I could find) doesn't get it 100% right- what these MPs are pushing for is a compromise solution that would keep PID illegal unless parents have a good reason to believe the eggs may be carrying some genetic mutation that would result in a severe disbility,
How do you all feel about these screenings? It's clearly a reproductive rights issue, but since most of the eggs that end up not being implanted have some sort of (severe) disability, I do think there's a discussion about the undelying attitudes there- do you think legalizing these kinds of procedures send a message that we, as a society, would rather people with disabilities would rather never have been born?
It's also interesting to note that this is framed as a conscience issue and not at all a party vote: the proposal described above seems to be a compromise between what the opposition was pushing for (allowing screenings always and leaving choice completely up to parents) and what the governing conservatives want (not legalizing these screenings; also basically a moratorium of late-term abortions, which is a whole other story).