Problems and Purpose

Background History and Context

Bioethics laws are revised every 7 years. Since 2011, citizen conferences are mandatory for the revision of these laws.

Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities

In anticipation of the revision of the bioethics laws, a public consultation was organized by the CCNE (comité consultative national d’éthique). Its mission was to monitor the public consultation, and to take position on two topics (end of life and physician-assisted suicide, and genomics, especially preconception genetic diagnosis), chosen by the participants themselves upon their first meeting.

Participant Recruitment and Selection

The sample excludes party, union, or NGO workers.

Methods and Tools Used

What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation

Influence, Outcomes, and Effects

A report with policy recommendations was issued on June 5, conjointly with the CCNE’s general report on the public consultation (note: the CCNE issued its own policy recommendations in September). In particular, the majority of participants declared themselves favorable to physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia (as in 2013). Most of them also endorsed the use of preconception genetic testing, and the use of genetic data resulting from these tests for scientific research. They disagreed on whether the possibility of preconception diagnosis should be open to everyone or restricted to at-risk populations.

Analysis and Lessons Learned

See Also

References

External Links

Notes

This entry is based on the POLITICIZE dataset. More information can be found at the following links:

• Paulis, Emilien; Pilet, Jean-Benoit; Panel, Sophie; Vittori, Davide; Close, Caroline, 2020, "POLITICIZE Dataset", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/Z7X6GT, Harvard Dataverse, V1
• Pilet J-B, Paulis E, Panel S.,Vitori D & Close C. 202X The POLITICIZE Dataset: an inventory of Deliberative Mini-Publics (DMPs) in Europe. European Political Science.