DPI-A preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy in France, Digi Mart USA News (France): French Ecologist leader Marine Tondelier has disclosed on social media that she traveled to Belgium to undergo a genetic examination that is banned in France, marking World Fertility Day.
Tondelier described a three-year fertility treatment journey that was unsuccessful and included several miscarriages, with doctors unable to explain why. She said the tests she had undergone addressed only about 20% of possible causes of failure, and that the remaining causes lie in the embryos, which French law did not allow her to investigate.
She explained that she discovered preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy, known as DPI-A, which identifies chromosomal abnormalities in embryos at five days of development, before freezing. Tondelier said she later became naturally pregnant, which she called miraculous, after using DPI-A during an IVF cycle in Belgium that she said cost at least 10,000 euros.
Doctors found that two of five embryos were viable.
DPI-A analyzes one or a few cells from an embryo to detect abnormalities in chromosome number before transfer to the uterus. According to the Erege, a public bioethics body in the Grand-Est region, such abnormalities are the main cause of implantation failure and account for nearly half of early spontaneous miscarriages.
In France, preimplantation diagnosis is restricted to couples at high risk of transmitting a serious, incurable genetic disease, as well as structural chromosomal anomalies carried by a parent. French bioethics law limits the diagnosis to searching for a previously identified genetic anomaly rather than broad screening, and it may only be performed at five specialized centers in Paris, Strasbourg, Montpellier, Nantes and Grenoble, under the supervision of the Agence de la biomedecine.
Opponents of wider use argue it could lead to eugenics, including the selection of embryos over conditions such as trisomy 21. Some critics claim that parents could eventually choose hair or eye color.
Such uses go well beyond the test as currently authorized in countries including the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, the United States and Hungary, where strict conditions ensure the embryo is viable and can become a healthy child.
Scientific data remain limited in proving the benefits of DPI-A, according to a piece published by The Conversation. Because embryos are selected from among fertilized oocytes during IVF, some studies suggest the test may lower birth rates by excluding potentially viable embryos.
For this reason, scientific societies do not recommend routine use of DPI-A for people undergoing fertility treatment.
Tondelier has said she supports the test within a well-defined framework. States general on bioethics opened earlier this year with this topic on the agenda.
The National Consultative Ethics Committee is expected to issue an opinion in the autumn on citizen proposals, before any political debate on revising the bioethics law, which would not occur before the end of Emmanuel Macron’s second term.
