Early life

For the first time, the Food and Drug Administration has authorised a clinical protocol for in utero treatment on a foetus diagnosed with type 1 spinal muscular atrophy, which in its most severe forms limits life expectancy to 2 years. The results published in February 2025 in the New England Journal of Medicine suggest new avenues for the prenatal treatment of this disease. This disease is caused by a mutation of the SMN1 gene (for Survival Motor Neuron) which causes severe and progressive...

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The procedure began in 2018, when the uterus of a brain-dead donor was transplanted into a woman suffering from Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome. This syndrome is characterised by the total or partial absence of a vagina and an underdeveloped or non-existent uterus. To achieve pregnancy in these conditions, embryos were conceived by in vitro fertilisation prior to the transplant and subsequently re-implanted once doctors had established that the transplanted uterus had not been...

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According to a study published in 2024 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, donations of foetal tissue after abortion have increased significantly in the Netherlands, from 1.2% (8 donations out of 663 abortions) to 21.7% (132 donations out of 609 abortions), following the creation of a Dutch foetal biobank. For the authors of the study, incorporating donation options into post-abortion advice could ‘ethically improve tissue acquisition for continued medical progress’.

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The study was based on all second trimester abortions (13,777) performed in the hospitals of Quebec between 1989 and 2021. In Quebec, the law does not stipulate a maximum time limit for performing an abortion. The researchers found that abortions performed during the second trimester of pregnancy due to fetal anomalies doubled between the period 1989 - 2000 and 2011-2021. At the same time, they observed a significant increase in live births following a second-trimester abortion: the rate of...

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The congress was initiated by a number of Flemish and German academics, as well as the NFP-Vlaanderen (Natural Family Planning) association, which holds the Sensiplan® licence - the registered name for the sympto-thermal method. This method combines observation of a woman's body temperature and cervical mucus*. Until the beginning of the 20th century, there were no studies to test its reliability, but things have changed, thanks in particular to the German NFP working group, which...

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Abortion, the intentional termination of a pregnancy, has long been a subject of passionate debate in society and the legislature. It straddles the fine line between the right to self-determination and the protection of the life of the unborn child. In this contribution, we wish to examine the complexity of abortion, but rather as a principle, at a meta-level, detached from concrete clinical practice. This has the advantage of not prejudicing individual, sometimes heart-rending, cases. From a...

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On October 16, 2024, the Italian Senate voted to extend the criminalization of surrogate motherhood to include the “crime of surrogate motherhood committed abroad by an Italian citizen”. From now on, Italian nationals who use a surrogate mother abroad will also be liable to a penalty of up to two years' imprisonment and a €1 million fine. By describing surrogacy as a “universal crime”, the Italian senators have expressed their desire for global condemnation of...

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The study was based on data from artificial procreation registries in four Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) between 1984 and 2015. It covered all live-born children, over 7.7 million in total. Of these, 171,735 were born using artificial reproduction. The study shows that heart defects were around 36% more frequent in these babies than in those conceived naturally (absolute risk 1.84% vs. 1.15%). This risk is similar whatever the type of assisted reproduction (in vitro...

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The fact that the negative perception of people with disabilities leads to a high rate of abortions due to Down's syndrome is in practice linked to the widespread use of the NIP-test as a screening method in Belgium. This non-invasive blood test is routinely offered to pregnant women, and is fully reimbursed by the Belgian state. Although healthcare providers are supposed to leave the choice to couples faced with the news of a disability, more than 95% of pregnancies are nevertheless...

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According to a study published last June, the number of human embryos cryopreserved following artificial reproduction has reached a record level in the UK. Published in The New Bioethics, the study analysed data provided by the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) between 1991 and 2019. The figures show that at least 130,000 stored embryos have been destroyed in the UK since 1991. This situation, already problematic in itself, is particularly so in the UK, where legislation...

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