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"Self-introduction"

I have worked as a senior researcher here at the Research Center for Ars Vivendi of Ritsumeikan University since April 2013.

My main focus is bioethics in France. Particularly, I have been conducting research concerning Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART)--how the French society sees it and accepts its development.

In France, because ART is considered to be a treatment for "Medical Sterility," it is only permitted to heterosexual couples. Recently, the same-sex marriage bill has passed in the French Parliament. In the discussion on the bill, Senators and Deputies also discussed the ART access to same-sex couples. Now, it is called "Social Sterility," which is the condition of being sterile without a help of recent medical development, such as ART for same-sex couples.

Will there be an access to ART for Social Sterility from now on? If so, who will decide it in what way? I will comprehend the transformation from the views of sterility, family and its procreation by going through the discussion in the French society, based on the notion of our center's four research themes--disability, aging, illness and differences--.

KOKADO Minori

Senior Researcher, Kinugasa Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University

Academice specialities: bioethics

Article co-authored: "Surrogacy: Donor conception regulation in Japan", Bioethics, 24(7), 2010, etc.