Translator: Mohand Habchi Reviewer: eric vautier
Good evening Namur. You are fine ?
Yes ? You have a good evening?
All the better. So we will continue.
I am extremely happy to be here tonight,
and for the occasion,
those who know me will not be surprised,
I propose to accompany you for shopping.
Yes.
No, do not worry,
stay comfortably in your chair,
I take you surfing the web.
You know, on the one-click mode,
I fill my basket, I validate, and go.
What luxury!
What a revolution for all fans of shopping around the world!
Guess what are we going to put in our basket tonight?
A little idea?
Sperm, of course, sperm. Exactly.
(Laughter)
Bravo. You were there at the rehearsal maybe?
Sperm. OK, that’s it, I see you coming.
You say to yourself, “She’s going to show us US sites again.
Where ethics is not on the rise,
where the only law that is worth is the law of the market. “
Well yes,
I’m not very proud, but at first,
I was tempted to do my shopping across the Atlantic.
An incomparable choice.
Dentists, musicians, athletes, physicists.
No Unif teacher, but first class all the same.
And then very quickly, my choice fell on Gus.
The donor of the month of January,
because I did my shopping in January, it’s the sales.
Gus, he’s really the perfect guy.
Frankly, it’s hard to do better.
Strong, athletic, tall, obviously blond, blue-green eyes.
Genetically tested against more than twenty diseases.
Graduate in biochemistry.
Guarantee without Jewish ancestors.
(Laughter)
It’s written, I do not invent anything.
I wanted to place this one anyway.
And then I said to myself:
“Géraldine, why do not you contribute
to the growth of the European economy? “
And that’s where I remembered
that the largest sperm bank in the world
was located not far from home.
In Denmark.
A flourishing business.
It’s not cheap sperm,
it’s luxury sperm.
The cream of the crop, if I may.
(Laughter)
So let’s go ?
We fill our little basket in the shape of a stroller?
First criterion of selection obviously: the race.
Given my profile, we will choose Caucasian,
as long as it’s done, it has to be plausible.
For the color of the hair,
I would like to leave on blonde, dark blonde.
Oh no, not red. Especially not red.
No, but you know hell waiting for a red kid
in the playground?
“The reds, it stinks. Red hair. It smells scorched.
You took a sunburn through a colander. “
Yes, it feels the lived, actually.
So no, everything but not that for my child, please.
The color of the eyes.
There, I said to myself:
“We would leave well on blue, blue-gray variant.
Blue-green, it can be nice too. “
Size. 1m80 – 1m89, it seems to me in the average.
Finally, a little big.
The weight: 80 – 89 kg.
So, if I calculate well, I did the exercise,
we get a body mass index quite in the norm.
What is left for us to select?
Motility.
Motility, ladies and gentlemen,
this is the number of motile spermatozoa per milliliter after thawing.
Since it’s for home-made insemination at home –
yes, there is a manual with the delivery.
So you get it for home insemination.
I read it, it’s very interesting, you have to watch.
Since it is for home-made insemination at home,
we will put all the chances on our side,
and opt for maximum motility.
What’s left?
Ah yes, anonymous profile versus non-anonymous.
So yes, not anonymous, it’s more expensive.
But damn it, the devil greed, all the same, I did my doctorate
on the right of the child to know his origins,
it would be a pity to deny its principles.
The winner is: Handy. So cute.
(Laughter)
Handy does not wear contact lenses.
He does not suffer from any physical anomaly or any allergies.
He looked like Mel Gibson when he was little.
Either you do not remember,
you are too young to know him,
but if you wish, you click, and you have the photos of Mel Gibson.
(Laughter)
Handy does not ride on a motorcycle.
Well, yes, all the same, it reduces the risk of accident during adolescence.
He does not smoke.
Zero to one unit of alcohol per week.
Who says better ?
The mineral tour does not count, but still, who says better?
He’s trying to eat healthy, Handy.
He sleeps seven hours a night, Handy.
His favorite animal, the cat.
Just like me.
I am packed, packed. Not you ?
The impression of the staff is excellent.
It counts the impression of the staff.
The emotional intelligence profile is quite average.
I give you thanks for calculations.
Great. I add in my basket.
A stock for immediate consumption,
and then a small reserve in case I still need his services.
Great. You can not stop progress.
Ladies, no need to be burdened with a man on a daily basis.
Too old to use your own oocytes?
But no problem.
Oocytes of beautiful and talented young women
are also available on the net.
For you gentlemen, obviously, it will be the full package.
Surrogate mother.
American, if you have the means, Indian, if the times are hard.
Select sex?
But no problem.
Thanks to preimplantation genetic diagnosis.
So I tell you,
in a few years,
there will only be the poor to reproduce the old way,
(Laughter)
and opt for petty, random, totally irrational procreation,
while the others,
will program the biological identity of the unborn child,
and it will be wonderful.
Here. The shopping session is over. Thank you.
No. You can imagine, it’s not over.
It’s not over, actually.
Joke aside, all I’ve just shown you here,
it’s not science fiction. Oh, no, it already exists.
And that’s by doing my thesis
on the right of the child to know his origins,
that I came across these sites.
And I had a hard time believing it. And I still have a hard time believing it.
And when I talk about it, people have a hard time believing it.
And that’s why I’m talking about it today, is not it?
So yes, I was questioned.
I immediately thought, and how not to think about it,
risks of abuse of these practices.
Will to improve the human species,
eradication of the disease, disability,
instrumentalization of the body, the objectification of the unborn child.
When will the insemination team be frozen between pizzas and ice cream?
No, but it’s cold in the back anyway. No ?
And then I said to myself:
“Geraldine. Géraldine, Zen, breathe.
OK, you feel uncomfortable, you think of eugenics,
yes but, finally, live with your time, damn it!
Show an open mind. Where is the harm? “
And so at the end of one of my lectures,
a student came to ask me the inconvenient question.
“But ma’am, I do not understand. I do not understand. Where is the harm?
In what way is it wrong to want to improve the human species?
To eradicate the disease, the handicap.
Only select donors with a higher pedigree.
No more dwarves, trisomics, morons,
and even medium intelligences.
No more myopic, asthmatic. “
And the redheads in the wake, is that it? No but.
Do we understand well,
I’m not here to knock you down with moral or religious convictions,
and tell you, “God, it’s bad. ” No.
No, I want to seize the opportunity given to me today,
for you to accompany me in this questioning:
how far to go?
Where to lay the limits?
Should we even set limits?
A priori, want to help a sterile couple who can not have children,
but it’s a good thing.
Use prenatal tests,
or preimplantation genetic diagnosis,
to remove the sick embryo, select the strongest,
well, how is it wrong?
Pay a woman to carry my child, or put the price high
to have the best spermatozoa, the best possible oocytes,
but it bothers who if I have the means?
I do not have an answer to submit.
My reflection, it is in progress and I wanted to share it.
Are we allowed to do so? And if so, how far?
For the desire of man to control the beginning and the end of life,
he is really powerful.
And for the transhumanists,
any scientific or technological progress is necessarily better.
We will become more beautiful, stronger, smarter,
to live longer. Foot.
And in this conception, progress must not be questioned.
Well, I want to question him.
I want to wake up our critical spirit,
take a step back,
we think together about the world we want tomorrow.
Remember
that progress of science does not necessarily rhyme with progress of humanity.
So I think, but it’s only my responsibility,
that all knowledge needs to be humanized.
That the technological race should never be an end in itself.
Do not forget that what makes us human,
it is also this part of chance at birth.
It’s the acceptance of our vulnerability.
The human being based on his faults is also what makes his singularity.
Because even when,
all children would be designed and selected in the laboratory,
it would remain to manage this lack of perfection which characterizes us.
No human being, as beautiful, as strong, as intelligent as it is,
can not come into the world
free from the risk of developing a serious illness.
Absolute safety on the unborn baby, you forget. Utopia.
Do not forget that I can go out,
and have a car or horse accident, no matter, motorcycle,
and find myself more vulnerable.
I think that, in the face of advances in science,
the human being still has a say.
He has his say,
and as a jurist, I think that the law still has a say,
and even worse, that he has to say it.
I believe in human rights.
Human rights consecrate solidarity, the dignity of man,
the respect of the man in his difference.
So, yes of course, as a parent or future parent,
we all want the most beautiful baby possible, in perfect health,
a child who has a brilliant career,
doctor of legal sciences for example,
but it’s forgetting that the birth of a child,
it is always an opening to uncertainty, to novelty.
And the philosopher Hannah Arendt reminds us,
that giving birth to a child is not a work,
a project that we could carry out and control perfectly.
No. It is about the action and the creation of novelty,
with all the hopes and uncertainties of novelty.
What scares me, ladies and gentlemen,
it’s not science. No.
It’s indifference.
Indifference before human selection
who is thus putting himself in place,
it does not stir anyone.
Finally, the indifference that can be explained simply
by ignorance.
For who among you knew the existence of this market before tonight?
So, I just wanted to show you this reality,
and invite you to question yourself,
even to position yourself as a citizen
on the world you want for your children tomorrow.
And I will end with these words of the German philosopher Hans Jonas:
“The question is not: will it work? “
No, it works, it’s a flourishing business.
The question is, “What does man have to get used to?
What is the right to force him to get used to? “
Thank you for your attention.
(Applause)
Good evening Namur. You are fine ?
Yes ? You have a good evening?
All the better. So we will continue.
I am extremely happy to be here tonight,
and for the occasion,
those who know me will not be surprised,
I propose to accompany you for shopping.
Yes.
No, do not worry,
stay comfortably in your chair,
I take you surfing the web.
You know, on the one-click mode,
I fill my basket, I validate, and go.
What luxury!
What a revolution for all fans of shopping around the world!
Guess what are we going to put in our basket tonight?
A little idea?
Sperm, of course, sperm. Exactly.
(Laughter)
Bravo. You were there at the rehearsal maybe?
Sperm. OK, that’s it, I see you coming.
You say to yourself, “She’s going to show us US sites again.
Where ethics is not on the rise,
where the only law that is worth is the law of the market. “
Well yes,
I’m not very proud, but at first,
I was tempted to do my shopping across the Atlantic.
An incomparable choice.
Dentists, musicians, athletes, physicists.
No Unif teacher, but first class all the same.
And then very quickly, my choice fell on Gus.
The donor of the month of January,
because I did my shopping in January, it’s the sales.
Gus, he’s really the perfect guy.
Frankly, it’s hard to do better.
Strong, athletic, tall, obviously blond, blue-green eyes.
Genetically tested against more than twenty diseases.
Graduate in biochemistry.
Guarantee without Jewish ancestors.
(Laughter)
It’s written, I do not invent anything.
I wanted to place this one anyway.
And then I said to myself:
“Géraldine, why do not you contribute
to the growth of the European economy? “
And that’s where I remembered
that the largest sperm bank in the world
was located not far from home.
In Denmark.
A flourishing business.
It’s not cheap sperm,
it’s luxury sperm.
The cream of the crop, if I may.
(Laughter)
So let’s go ?
We fill our little basket in the shape of a stroller?
First criterion of selection obviously: the race.
Given my profile, we will choose Caucasian,
as long as it’s done, it has to be plausible.
For the color of the hair,
I would like to leave on blonde, dark blonde.
Oh no, not red. Especially not red.
No, but you know hell waiting for a red kid
in the playground?
“The reds, it stinks. Red hair. It smells scorched.
You took a sunburn through a colander. “
Yes, it feels the lived, actually.
So no, everything but not that for my child, please.
The color of the eyes.
There, I said to myself:
“We would leave well on blue, blue-gray variant.
Blue-green, it can be nice too. “
Size. 1m80 – 1m89, it seems to me in the average.
Finally, a little big.
The weight: 80 – 89 kg.
So, if I calculate well, I did the exercise,
we get a body mass index quite in the norm.
What is left for us to select?
Motility.
Motility, ladies and gentlemen,
this is the number of motile spermatozoa per milliliter after thawing.
Since it’s for home-made insemination at home –
yes, there is a manual with the delivery.
So you get it for home insemination.
I read it, it’s very interesting, you have to watch.
Since it is for home-made insemination at home,
we will put all the chances on our side,
and opt for maximum motility.
What’s left?
Ah yes, anonymous profile versus non-anonymous.
So yes, not anonymous, it’s more expensive.
But damn it, the devil greed, all the same, I did my doctorate
on the right of the child to know his origins,
it would be a pity to deny its principles.
The winner is: Handy. So cute.
(Laughter)
Handy does not wear contact lenses.
He does not suffer from any physical anomaly or any allergies.
He looked like Mel Gibson when he was little.
Either you do not remember,
you are too young to know him,
but if you wish, you click, and you have the photos of Mel Gibson.
(Laughter)
Handy does not ride on a motorcycle.
Well, yes, all the same, it reduces the risk of accident during adolescence.
He does not smoke.
Zero to one unit of alcohol per week.
Who says better ?
The mineral tour does not count, but still, who says better?
He’s trying to eat healthy, Handy.
He sleeps seven hours a night, Handy.
His favorite animal, the cat.
Just like me.
I am packed, packed. Not you ?
The impression of the staff is excellent.
It counts the impression of the staff.
The emotional intelligence profile is quite average.
I give you thanks for calculations.
Great. I add in my basket.
A stock for immediate consumption,
and then a small reserve in case I still need his services.
Great. You can not stop progress.
Ladies, no need to be burdened with a man on a daily basis.
Too old to use your own oocytes?
But no problem.
Oocytes of beautiful and talented young women
are also available on the net.
For you gentlemen, obviously, it will be the full package.
Surrogate mother.
American, if you have the means, Indian, if the times are hard.
Select sex?
But no problem.
Thanks to preimplantation genetic diagnosis.
So I tell you,
in a few years,
there will only be the poor to reproduce the old way,
(Laughter)
and opt for petty, random, totally irrational procreation,
while the others,
will program the biological identity of the unborn child,
and it will be wonderful.
Here. The shopping session is over. Thank you.
No. You can imagine, it’s not over.
It’s not over, actually.
Joke aside, all I’ve just shown you here,
it’s not science fiction. Oh, no, it already exists.
And that’s by doing my thesis
on the right of the child to know his origins,
that I came across these sites.
And I had a hard time believing it. And I still have a hard time believing it.
And when I talk about it, people have a hard time believing it.
And that’s why I’m talking about it today, is not it?
So yes, I was questioned.
I immediately thought, and how not to think about it,
risks of abuse of these practices.
Will to improve the human species,
eradication of the disease, disability,
instrumentalization of the body, the objectification of the unborn child.
When will the insemination team be frozen between pizzas and ice cream?
No, but it’s cold in the back anyway. No ?
And then I said to myself:
“Geraldine. Géraldine, Zen, breathe.
OK, you feel uncomfortable, you think of eugenics,
yes but, finally, live with your time, damn it!
Show an open mind. Where is the harm? “
And so at the end of one of my lectures,
a student came to ask me the inconvenient question.
“But ma’am, I do not understand. I do not understand. Where is the harm?
In what way is it wrong to want to improve the human species?
To eradicate the disease, the handicap.
Only select donors with a higher pedigree.
No more dwarves, trisomics, morons,
and even medium intelligences.
No more myopic, asthmatic. “
And the redheads in the wake, is that it? No but.
Do we understand well,
I’m not here to knock you down with moral or religious convictions,
and tell you, “God, it’s bad. ” No.
No, I want to seize the opportunity given to me today,
for you to accompany me in this questioning:
how far to go?
Where to lay the limits?
Should we even set limits?
A priori, want to help a sterile couple who can not have children,
but it’s a good thing.
Use prenatal tests,
or preimplantation genetic diagnosis,
to remove the sick embryo, select the strongest,
well, how is it wrong?
Pay a woman to carry my child, or put the price high
to have the best spermatozoa, the best possible oocytes,
but it bothers who if I have the means?
I do not have an answer to submit.
My reflection, it is in progress and I wanted to share it.
Are we allowed to do so? And if so, how far?
For the desire of man to control the beginning and the end of life,
he is really powerful.
And for the transhumanists,
any scientific or technological progress is necessarily better.
We will become more beautiful, stronger, smarter,
to live longer. Foot.
And in this conception, progress must not be questioned.
Well, I want to question him.
I want to wake up our critical spirit,
take a step back,
we think together about the world we want tomorrow.
Remember
that progress of science does not necessarily rhyme with progress of humanity.
So I think, but it’s only my responsibility,
that all knowledge needs to be humanized.
That the technological race should never be an end in itself.
Do not forget that what makes us human,
it is also this part of chance at birth.
It’s the acceptance of our vulnerability.
The human being based on his faults is also what makes his singularity.
Because even when,
all children would be designed and selected in the laboratory,
it would remain to manage this lack of perfection which characterizes us.
No human being, as beautiful, as strong, as intelligent as it is,
can not come into the world
free from the risk of developing a serious illness.
Absolute safety on the unborn baby, you forget. Utopia.
Do not forget that I can go out,
and have a car or horse accident, no matter, motorcycle,
and find myself more vulnerable.
I think that, in the face of advances in science,
the human being still has a say.
He has his say,
and as a jurist, I think that the law still has a say,
and even worse, that he has to say it.
I believe in human rights.
Human rights consecrate solidarity, the dignity of man,
the respect of the man in his difference.
So, yes of course, as a parent or future parent,
we all want the most beautiful baby possible, in perfect health,
a child who has a brilliant career,
doctor of legal sciences for example,
but it’s forgetting that the birth of a child,
it is always an opening to uncertainty, to novelty.
And the philosopher Hannah Arendt reminds us,
that giving birth to a child is not a work,
a project that we could carry out and control perfectly.
No. It is about the action and the creation of novelty,
with all the hopes and uncertainties of novelty.
What scares me, ladies and gentlemen,
it’s not science. No.
It’s indifference.
Indifference before human selection
who is thus putting himself in place,
it does not stir anyone.
Finally, the indifference that can be explained simply
by ignorance.
For who among you knew the existence of this market before tonight?
So, I just wanted to show you this reality,
and invite you to question yourself,
even to position yourself as a citizen
on the world you want for your children tomorrow.
And I will end with these words of the German philosopher Hans Jonas:
“The question is not: will it work? “
No, it works, it’s a flourishing business.
The question is, “What does man have to get used to?
What is the right to force him to get used to? “
Thank you for your attention.
(Applause)
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