The press review index from 29 October to 02 November 2007

Netherlands: outcome of Donna case 

The court of Utrecht (Netherlands) has ruled that Donna must stay with her adoptive family.

Donna was born in Belgium on 26 February 2005. In April 2004, her Belgian surrogate mother promised her to a Flemish couple in exchange for 10,000 euros in "compensation". In the meantime, she tried to find higher bidders. A Dutch couple finally "won the bid" at 15,000 euros and initiated adoption procedures. In late May 2005, the Belgian public prosecutor's office took up the case, citing the law against human trafficking. On 29 June 2005, the Belgian courts ruled that Donna had to return to Belgium and that she would be placed in the care of the Flemish child welfare services.

On 24 October, the court ruled that Donna was well taken care of by her Dutch family and that the biological father's plea was inadmissible as he had had no real family contact with the little girl since her birth.

The judges will hand down a final ruling in March 2008. They have requested the Dutch Child Welfare Council to investigate Donna's future situation. "We are particularly anxious to know when and how her adoptive parents will tell her how she came to be with them and how they will then help her to deal with this information", explained a spokesperson for the Council. The Council also recommended that the child have contact with her biological parents.

French daily Le Monde pointed out that Belgian political leaders had promised to monitor web sites offering to put sterile couples in contact with surrogate mothers. "These web sites apparently continue to act with complete impunity", concluded the journalist.

Le Monde (Jean-Pierre Stroobants) 31/10/07

Switzerland: should pre-implantation genetic diagnosis be extended?

The Swiss National Ethics Commission (NEC) clarified its stance on pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).

The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) requested the NEC clarify its stance on the issue of PGD as a guideline for a new bill on this issue.

PGD is banned by the human assisted reproduction law, which came into effect in 2001, and this clause has been disputed before Parliament several times. In 2005, the Houses gave the FOPH a mandate to prepare new framework legislation. The bill is set to be reviewed during the first half of 2008 and submitted to Parliament in 2010.

The NEC issued the following recommendations :
- It is not opposed to the selection of potential donor embryos referred to as "designer babies".
- It does not recommend restricting the number of embryos produced per menstrual cycle to 3, "an insufficient number to carry out pre-implantation genetic diagnosis with a high chance of success".
- It also recommends removing the ban on freezing embryos. Cryopreservation would enable parents to use "diagnosed" embryos depending on their "plans to start a family".

The NEC pointed to an inherent contradiction in Swiss law with regard to PGD. Olivier Guillod, director of the Health Law Institute in Neufchatel, and a member of the Commission, stressed that as current legislation already allows prenatal diagnosis of genetic diseases in foetuses, why should it not in embryos?

Le Temps (Jean-Luc Vonnez) 31/10/07

 Conscientious objection a right

Upon receiving participants at the 25th International Congress of Catholic Pharmacists, Pope Benedict XVI invited them to defend their right to conscientious objection so as "not to collaborate directly or indirectly in supplying products that have clearly immoral purposes such as, for example, abortion or euthanasia".

"We cannot anesthetize consciences as regards, for example, the effect of certain molecules that have the goal of preventing the implantation of the embryo or shortening a person's life. Pharmacists should raise people's awareness so that all human beings are protected from conception to natural death, and so that medicines truly play a therapeutic role."

The pope stressed the "educational role" pharmacists should play in "making people aware of the ethical implications of using certain drugs" and the necessity for further training, particularly as regards bioethical subjects.

"Biomedical sciences are at the service of man", he concluded.

Zenit 29/10/07 - VIS 29/10/07 - Canadianpress.com 29/10/07 - La Croix 30/10/07 - Le Quotidien du Médecin 31/10/07

Chile and Portugal: conscientious objection under threat

The Chilean Health Ministry has fined three pharmacy chains 33 million pesos for not distributing the morning-after pill. The morning-after pill has been available in the country for the past five months and the Health Ministry has ordered pharmacies to stock it or risk being fined.

The "Muévete Chili" organisation along with institutions in favour of life and the family have protested against these penalties which are an infringement of life, liberty and conscientious objection for the profession. For Bishop Fernando Chomali, auxiliary bishop of Santiago and member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, "to oblige material and formal collaboration to sell a product harmful to health is clearly an act contrary to reason and contrary to the law", and therefore "constitutes not only an abuse of power, the product of a mistaken concept of democracy, but also an act of intolerance in the name of tolerance".

Six months after the promulgation of the law legalising abortion, the Portuguese Health Minister, Antonio Correia de Campos, ordered the Portuguese Doctors' Association to remove their conscience clause concerning abortion within 30 days. The current ethical code stipulates that "doctors must respect human life from its inception" and that "carrying out an abortion is a serious ethical fault".

For the Portuguese Doctors' Association, this order is "excessive and arrogant", especially given that the protection of human life is still enshrined in the Constitution.

Life News 29/10/07 - Zenit 29/10/07 - Le Quotidien du Médecin 05/11/07 - Décryptage 02/11/07

Gene therapy: new prospects

Two children with adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), an orphan genetic disease, have been able to be treated using gene therapy. This announcement was made by Prof. Patrick Aubourg, a specialist in the disease, at the congress of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ESGCT) in Rotterdam.

In 2000, Prof. Alain Fischer of INSERM (French National Institute for Health and Medical Research) cured a patient for the first time using gene therapy. The same protocol was used this time: blood stem cells from the children were given the gene drug in vitro before being injected back into the children to reconstitute their blood cells. "Six and twelve months later, respectively, the children are healthy and no side effects can be observed", commented Prof. Aubourg.

In 1993, Prof. Aubourg and Prof. Jean-Louis Mandel identified the mutation responsible for the disease, situated in a fatty acid transporter gene. In 2003, a vector derived from the AIDS virus was successfully used to treat a diseased mouse.

Note that the risk of leukaemia caused by injecting a viral vector into the genome has greatly decreased since the initial trials. Furthermore, there is no risk of rejection as this is an autograft.

Prof. Aubourg's historic achievement raises high hopes of treatment for ALD sufferers. The breakthrough has enabled doctors to verify that a genetic disease of the central nervous system can be treated in this way: "Certain blood cells carrying the gene drug have a natural capacity to migrate to the brain and differentiate into macrophages, immune system cells. This colonisation enables a disease impacting other areas besides the blood to be corrected", specified Prof. Aubourg.

Le Figaro (Pierre Kaldy) 29/10/07 - Le Quotidien du Médecin (Dr Béatrice Vuaille) 31/10/07 - La Croix 30/10/07 - Le Monde (Paul Benkimoun) 30/10/07