5% of children conceived by PMA are the result of donated gametes, whether sperm from a man or oocytes from a woman.
From September 1st, children conceived thanks to this donation will be able to more easily, in adulthood, know the identity of "their" donor.
Provided for by the bioethics law promulgated a year ago, after the long debate of the general assembly of bioethics 2018, this reform aims to facilitate "access to personal origins": donors will now have to consent to their identity being, in the future, communicated to adult children who so wish.
A commission will also be set up to help today's adults who are looking for their parents.
No guarantee of success, however, because the donor, if found, may oppose the disclosure of his identity.
“This reform had become inevitable, because it accompanies an evolution of society”, estimates with AFP Dr. Florence Eustache, vice-president of the Federation of Cecos, the hospital structures in charge of the management of gamete donations and medically assisted procreation (PMA).
Everyone has “the right to know how they came into the world”
At the time of the first inseminations, more than 40 years ago, infertility in the couple was still experienced as a "shame" or a "taboo", and some parents did not even reveal to their child the conditions of its design, she says.
Today, the psychologists of the Cecos advise families to be transparent, and the desire of children to access their origins is better understood and better welcomed, according to her.
Everyone has "the right to know how he came into the world", underlines Adèle Bourdelet, of Added, the "Association of children of the gift".
A quest for origins that has its good and bad sides.
Some children search for their donor for a long time, but others, in adulthood, prefer “to deconstruct the very fact that the donation is part of their identity”.
However, the new legislation comes to formalize that a donation of gametes does indeed count among their "origins", she regrets, fearing that, in order not to undermine the bond which unites them to their child, certain parents will conceal the design method they used.
Access to the identity if the donor consents
President of the PMAnonyme association, Alexandre Mercier, he is delighted with the progress.
"Put a face on this man or woman, know to whom we owe his physical features, know his medical history, share what we acquire through genes or education...", will now be simplified.
However, "it is not a question of replacing our parents who raised us, nor of ceasing to love them", he insists.
And, he adds, many children born of a gift embarked on the process of finding the missing root in their family tree.
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Alexandre Mercier speaks knowingly: two years ago, to find his donor, he underwent a DNA test, the results of which he shared on a vast online database.
He was thus able to identify people who shared part of his genetic profile.
Reserved donors
By examining the genealogical links of these strangers, he ended up identifying his "biological father", Jacques Cabois, 74, with whom he is now in regular contact.
Arthur Kermalvezen, founding director of the Origines association, told our newspaper that he had done the same thing, successfully.
For donors, seeing an unknown “biological child” appear in their lives years later can be “very disturbing”, admits Mr. Cabois.
But “me, it touched me a lot.
I took it as a gift.
It would have been a shame to refuse it”, explains the septuagenarian, for whom everyone must however “stay in his place”: “he comes from me, but I am not his father”.
Other donors are more hesitant: Johanna (first name changed), in her thirties, who donated oocytes in 2018, “reserves (her) response” as to the future lifting of her anonymity.
“I am being asked to consent to something that will take place in such a distant future!
she sighs.
"I may have children myself at that time, it may have an impact on them, so it's complicated to answer".