By Evelyne Shuster, Ph.D.

The 2004 Bioethics Law currently under revision in France has generated hundreds of spirited (and contentious) debates over the use of human embryos in research and in assisted reproduction. While maintaining the 1994 ethics law prohibition on embryo research, the 2014 law has simultaneously legalized human embryonic stem cell research under an exception clause. The cultural war that ensues between those who favor embryo (and embryonic stem cell) research and those who don’t underlines a fundamental (and near universal) disagreement over the status of the human embryo. It also points to a tension inherent in the prohibition/exception approach to ethics. The way in which this cultural war and tension are addressed (and hopefully resolved) will determine the philosophical, cultural and practical relevance of the new ethics law in France. Most importantly, in our globalized world of “repro-tourism,” paid surrogacy, commerce in gametes and embryos, lack of transparency in assisted reproduction and human trafficking, the time has come to move beyond the embryo controversy and seriously engage the citizens of the world in exploring more pressing issues like inheritable genetic interventions that may alter the nature of our humanness, i.e. those very characteristics that make us human. An ethics model based on foundational bioethics and human rights principles - a model that has the potential for transcending national boundaries - is critically needed. France appears to be at the crossroad for articulating such a model. Whether it can deliver it is another question.