France Seeks Ban on Artificial Impregnation of Older Women

France declared Monday that it would seek to become the first country to ban artificial impregnation for post-menopausal women as part of a landmark legislative effort to cope with the moral and medical dilemmas posed by genetic engineering.

The decision by the French government to introduce legislation that would stop doctors from helping women past child-bearing age to give birth was announced Monday by Health Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, who called it “both immoral and dangerous” for older women to be implanted with test-tube embryos.

Other officials said the bill also will seek to prevent parents from selecting or determining physical and mental characteristics of their future child.

“I think it is absolutely shocking that a child can be 18 when his mother is 80. It is totally undeserved,” Douste-Blazy said in a radio interview.

Douste-Blazy urged women considering such a procedure to give more thought to the child, who medical authorities say would be more susceptible to mental and physical handicaps.

The phenomenon of “retirement pregnancies” has attracted wide attention in Europe after a 59-year-old British woman gave birth to twins over Christmas following treatment at an Italian clinic. The mother, who is said to be a wealthy businesswoman, reportedly is married to a 45-year-old man.

French officials said the government was particularly alarmed by advances in medical technology that now make it feasible for women to choose the ethnic identity, physical size or other characteristics of their baby through embryo implants.

The government of Prime Minister Edouard Balladur is expected to unveil new legislation in the Senate within two weeks before taking it to the National Assembly. Passage is considered a virtual certainty because the ruling conservative coalition holds a vast majority in both houses.

Some argued that the new law is necessary to reinforce the power of the state to prevent abuses that smack of genetic engineering. A de facto bar already prevents women from being implanted with fertilized embryos from eggs other than their own.