Round Table on "Assisted Fertilization" (In vitro fertilization)

Abstract

I begin with a quote from Jacques Testard -The transparent embryo, 1988- who in 1972 achieved the birth of two calves with in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (FIVET) and who in 1981 was the father of the first French "test tube" child. He describes how research is developed in this field and makes a personal reflection, as a scientist, on the progress of science in relation to assisted reproduction techniques and in vitro fertilization with embryo transfer. It goes like this, with sad irony: "Very soon FIVET will offer embryos à la carte, sexed and with characteristics guaranteed by our laboratory. A little more progress and the children will be chosen as puppies: hair color and leg length, aptitude for the health and shape of the ears, everything according to your tastes ... There are a few happy years before science can manipulate the human genome, but soon it will be possible to establish the genetic chart, the true identity document of the human being, and also know ever sooner to undesirable futures ... With some logic, some people try to generalize these diagnoses to prevent certain births or marriages, since they assume that this will achieve an improvement in the quality of modern society. practices the elimination of the fetus, once again the definition of a threshold is proposed: it is necessary to determine from what limit the man becomes intolerable for the man ". Later he gravely declares: "I, Jacques Testard, working in the field of assisted procreation, have decided to stop and end this maddened race towards scientific novelty, because I know the direction of the curve. It is intended to sacrifice innumerable human lives to build a hypothetical genetic progress: first embryos with congenital diseases will be eliminated and later there will be other reasons for discarding them: sex, height, eye color, hair color ... My last contribution has been the freezing of human embryos, but I will not go further, nor will I try other brands. Others will do it, but not because they are better, but simply because they want to do it, to be talked about, to appear on television. I am fully aware that this decision amounts to a kind of professional suicide for me. " Consistent with what has been said and with his enlightened conscience, in 1987 Jacques Testard withdrew from this field as did his colleague Vincenzo Abate, an Italian gynecologist who made the first child in his country by in vitro fertilization with embryo transfer (FIVET) and embryo freezing. (Cf. Marco Bach, F. Javier, "In vitro fertilization and embryo manipulation" Medicine and Ethics magazine, 1993/2, Universidad Anáhuac, Mexico-Italy).