Gynecologists would have used their own sperm during inseminations: a "health scandal" for the PMA association

An investigation by France Info reveals that several gynecologists are suspected of having used their own sperm for inseminations, without informing the patients. A case that reappears the taboo around the donation of gametes, long hidden as a shameful family secret.

This is a testimony loaded with bitterness and anger: the result of recourse to medically assisted procreation and born in 1986, Marjorie Mendes recently discovered thanks to a DNA test that she has a genetic match with several family members of her mother's gynecologist.

The same one who carried out the insemination.

This testimony and several others are at the heart of the fascinating investigation published on France Info on December 21: it reveals that several doctors would have used their own gametes without informing their patients.

Morally more than dubious practices, which reveal what the use of sperm donation could have been like before the framework of the bioethics laws introduced in 1994, and since revised in 2004, 2011 and finally in 2021.

Patients from whom the truth has been hidden

Camille Chapin-Derennes, vice-president of the PMAnonyme association, reminds Madmoizelle of the first problem with these medical procedures, which is that they were applied without the information and the consent of the patients: “The inseminations were done against the will of the women”, she underlines, not hesitating to speak of “medical violence”.

The PMAnonyme association, which defends the rights of people born from gamete donation, in particular their right to access their origins, does not hesitate to speak of a "health scandal" and it is far from being just for the formula.

Gynecologists allegedly used their own sperm during of inseminations: a

Within PMAnonyme, this scenario has already happened: “We found 32 half-brothers and half-sisters from the same donor, by the same firm. »

Limiting the number of children from the same donor: a necessity

With the legislation in force on the use of gamete donation in the context of insemination and in vitro fertilization, these cases are no longer possible.

On the one hand, because donations are now managed by dedicated establishments, the Cecos, Centers for the Study and Conservation of Eggs and Sperm, and on the other hand because the number of children born from gametes from the same donor is limited to ten. A way to avoid the risk of births resulting from consanguineous relations between people who are unaware that they share part of their genes.

In addition, the latest revision of bioethics laws has opened up access to origins for children born from donated gametes, who can, if they wish, obtain information about their donor at the age of majority. .

The stories revealed by the France Info survey act as revealers of the way in which gamete donation has long been considered: a secret to be kept quiet in the family, a story from which the child is ultimately excluded. If today, talking about the design mode is more encouraged, it was not always so.

Parents, on the contrary, were encouraged to hide. "90% of children born from a PMA between 1970 and 1990 are not aware of their mode of conception", insists Camille Chapin-Derennes.

If about thirty members of PMAnonyme know they are linked by the same donor, how many are unaware because they are unaware of this part of their history? “You can multiply by 10 or 20 the number of brothers or sisters. It's quite terrible, "said the vice-president of the association.

The taboo of gamete donation and the serial donor as a comic spring

The France Info investigation also puts the finger on the "abuse of power on the part of doctors" who allegedly acted in the backs of their patients and with total impunity. "When I read that people don't see the problem, I worry about the society in which we live," laments Camille Chapin-Derennes.

She also regrets that this type of affair is seen from the angle of a wacky farce. This is not the first time that the idea of ​​​​the serial donor has made people laugh and has been used as a somewhat easy joke, she assures us, recalling in particular the film Fonzy with Bruno Garcia, an adaptation of Starbuck.

What now? The National Council of the College of Physicians is now aware of the suspicions hanging over several gynecologists, pointed out by PMAnonymous.

The association would like arrangements to be made to be able to access the files of these health professionals.

To read also: To have a child, they turned to clandestine sperm donation

Photo credit: Nadezhda Moryak via Pexels

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