Bioethics laws

Summary

Law 2011-814 of 7 July 2011 on bioethics will be reviewed in 2018. The law states that "any proposed reform of the ethical problems and social issues raised by advances in knowledge in the fields of biology, medicine and health must be preceded by a public debate in the form of Estates General, organised on the initiative of the CCNE".

The Estates General took place in the first half of 2018, and all the work, arguments and opinions were set out in a summary report published in June 2018.

The CCNE then proposed to draw up an opinion on all the topics discussed, based on all the opinions expressed during the consultation and in conjunction with the main conclusions of its previous work.

This opinion - and the thinking behind it - is first and foremost a guide to the context, the benchmarks, the main issues and the outlook for the future. It is designed both for civil society, which was strongly involved in the public debate, and for the public players who are preparing to draft, propose and then vote on the new 2018-2019 bioethics law.