Michael Fuchs National ethics councils - Deutscher Ethikrat

Michael Fuchs National ethics councils. Their backgrounds, functions and modes of operation compared
Status as a consultative body
The French Ethics Committee sets a great deal of store by the distinction between an
ethics committee and elected legislative bodies. Although two members are parliamentarians
and further politicians are not excluded from membership, the CCNE as
a national ethics committee has deliberately distanced itself from political institutions.
It has also been concerned since its foundation to preserve a clear distinction
between itself and the organizations representing the medical profession, especially
as regards their self-regulatory activity in regard to professional codes and ethics.
The CCNE sees itself as an advisory body on ethics that also serves the legislature.
In many cases it has concluded that existing French law was ethically inadequate or
incomplete. Its second Opinion, dating from 1984, on the testing of new drugs on
human subjects, already revealed a need for specific regulation, and the 1988 law was
partly based on it. In some cases, however, the conclusions of the Ethics Committee
have not been reflected in subsequent legislation. Although the Committee has accepted
its task of commenting on the existing legal position, it has always taken care
not to draw up draft laws itself, although some of its members would certainly have
possessed sufficient competence in legal dogma and systematization to do so. In November
2000, the Committee was requested by the Prime Minister to comment for
the second time on the revision of the bioethics laws. The Opinion of 18 January
2001 on the preliminary draft revision of the bioethics laws calls for detailed clarifications
and corrections. With regard to therapeutic cloning, one of the thorniest ethical
aspects of the proposed reform, the CCNE confessed that it was itself split. It
analysed the problems, drew attention to the dissenting positions, and recommended
a cautious approach to such research. It urged a further intensification of the debate,
extending beyond Parliament to society as a whole. Thereafter, the legislative
revision was postponed several times. However, both the Minister of Health and the
legislature kept the CCNE’s proposals in mind (see Le Quotidien du Médecin, 4 June
2003). In December 2003, the revision was adopted by the National Assembly on its
second reading and submitted to the Senate.
Approaches to scientific evaluation
Whereas the European Commission has in the past subsidized a study comparing the
effects of citizen participation processes in the appraisal of the consequences of technology
for certain European states, there is at present no corresponding project on
the impact of national ethics commissions’ recommendations on legislation. France
is currently the only country in which preliminary scientific work at national level
has been undertaken. A dissertation on this subject was recently submitted at the
University of Aix-Marseilles.
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Transparency and public participation
The CCNE’s Avis are published at press conferences, which are held four or five times
a year. Furthermore, as required by the founding decree, a conference, for which the
Committee is responsible, is held annually. Several different types of events providing
for public participation have been developed.
In addition to wide-ranging documentation on the Internet, the Committee publishes
a quarterly journal (Les Cahiers du Comité Consultatif National d’Ethique).
Under the heading Rubrique internationale it regularly presents reports and news of
international and European meetings of national ethics committees and of the activities
of other national ethics bodies. Although no claim is made to completeness, information
that would otherwise be relatively inaccessible can be found here, for
instance on the work of the Algerian or Tunisian committees or on that of Luxembourg.
Website
CCNE: http://www.ccne-ethique.fr
Bibliography
Ambroselli, C. (1988). Les journées annuelles d’éthique 1987. Présentation. In: Comités d’éthique à travers le
monde. 2, recherches en cours 1987. Paris: 83.
Byk, Chr.; Mémeteau, G. (1996). Le droit des comités d’éthique (Collection “Médecine et droit”). Paris.
Changeux, J.-P. (1994). The Role and Functioning of the National Consultative Ethics Committee in France.
In: Council of Europe (ed.). Standing Conference of European Ethics Committees. Proceedings, Stockholm
8 – 9 April 1994: 100 – 106.
Chirac, J. (2003). Discours de Monsieur Jacques Chirac, Président de la République, à l’occasion du 20e
anniversaire du Comité consultatif national d’éthique pour les sciences de la vie et de la santé. Les cahiers
du Comité consultatif national d’éthique pour les sciences de la vie et de la santé 35: 27 – 30.
CCNE (1984). Avis sur les prélèvements de tissus d’embryons et de foetus humains morts, à des fins
thérapeutiques, diagnostiques et scientifiques (Avis n° 1 – 22 mai 1984).
CCNE (1987). Décret de création, n° 83 – 132, 23 février 1983. In: Comités d’éthique à travers le monde.
1, recherches en cours 1986. Paris: 79 – 84.
CCNE (1989). Avis sur les greffes de cellules nerveuses dans le traitement de la maladie de Parkinson
(Avis n° 16 – 16 octobre 1989).
CCNE (1990). Avis sur la non-commercialisation du corps humain (Avis n° 21 – 13 décembre 1990).
CCNE (1991). Avis sur la transfusion sanguine au regard de la non-commercialisation du corps humain
(Avis n° 28 – 28 décembre 1991).
CCNE (1997). Avis sur la constitution des collections tissus et organes embryonnaires humaines et leur
utilisation à des fins scientifiques (Avis n° 52 – 11 mars 1997).
CCNE (2001). Avis sur l’avant-projet de révision des lois de bioéthique (Avis n° 67 – 18 janvier 2001).
Décret n° 97 – 555 du 29 mai 1997 relatif au Comité consultatif national d’éthique pour les sciences de la vie et
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