Paris, 24 feb ( EFE).- Amandine, the first France test-tube baby, is today 30 years, three decades in which though as the gynecologist who made it possible, René Frydman, advances in assisted fertilisation have gravitated towards science fiction, remains too road ahead.
“Must be much progress in research to understand what makes an egg ends up being fertilized and another is not, why an embryo develops, what causes a miscarriage.” “It is a huge field of work and requires freedom”, told Efe the expert in a phone interview.
Frydman is the same who is credited the first birth in France after the freezing of an embryo, in 1986, the first preimplanting diagnosis to select embryos free of inherited diseases, in 2000, the first birth after the freezing of oocytes, in 2010, and the first baby medication, a year later.
To his 68 years, conscious of with Amandine is marked in his country “a before and an after” that he followed the wake that made possible the arrival of Louise Brown in England in 1978, who was head of the service of gynaecology and obstetrics of the hospital Antoine Béclère, Clamart, outside Paris, not thinking of retiring.
“Keep looking for solutions”, says in a moment in which some 20,000 children are born each year in France using assisted reproductive techniques, but that the success rate is around 20 per cent, which puts the country behind others such as United States or Belgium.
“I think that it is due to the population that tries is more mature, to people is it reimbursed social security, by which no doubt throwing the process even though it does not meet all the conditions, and the lack of transparency in the results,” explains the expert.
Frydman, taking advantage of its privileged location within the medical community, also claimed a more permissive legislation, which put an end to the ambiguity and incoherence that according to him exists in the current legislation gala.
“French law is the most ambiguous, because it says one thing and otherwise.” For example says that research is prohibited and is allowed at the same time. Many women go to other countries to resort to egg donation and are reimbursed in part by social security, but if they did in France they would go to jail. “There are – regrets – much confusion”.
The defendant of an opening legal to return to put the country in the lead does not carry, highlights, allow “anything”, as the selection of embryos for cosmetic and non-medical purposes, or rental of bellies, a practice accepted in United States but that for he enters a process of exploitation of the woman’s body.
For Frydman, in that country and in the Nations of the East “has been established a law of market that under the premise of freedom for the whole world has just only implying freedom for those who have money”.
Why the doctor argues that “the fight is not over” and that is a long way ahead, in which important is according to him to provide researchers in the media enough to advance research, such as setting ethical limits to control abuses.
“Any progress must be honest.” Respect for the other should take precedence. There are steps that seem science fiction, such as the creation of sperm in the laboratory from stem cells. “Increasingly are going to discover more things, but it is vital to see why it is done, and if it is necessary”.
Meanwhile, Amandine, to quench the thirst of media, awarded this week to the string “France 2” one of his rare public appearances in 30 years, with an interview in which wanted to downplay the interest still waking himself.
“I have five fingers on each hand, a navel, two eyes.” “The same defects, qualities and doubt that anyone”, told to the journalist, ensuring that having been the first France test-tube baby Yes influenced the lives of their parents, but not in yours.
By Marta Garde
