[Medically assisted reproduction and the desire for a child by HIV infected couples: has the time for a change in attitude come?]].
Today, in developed countries, many HIV-infected people remain in good health thanks to antiviral medication. A growing number of them want to have children. Medical possibilities for preventing contamination of the partners of seropositive men through assisted reproduction and of children thanks to antiviral medicines during pregnancy are summarized. These changes result in ethical considerations which lead the authors to question the conventional systematic medical advise against pregnancy and has encouraged them to assist reproduction for a number of these couples. Today, the balance between the importance of the message of prevention and the benefit for patients of being assisted in their desire for a child has tilted towards medical intervention. It would seem legitimate today to intervene in the most favourable situations rather than see these couples take the risk of spontaneous conception outside health care structures. This implies to adapt medical structure (separate laboratory, appropriate procedure, precise protocols). This approach, which is coherent from the scientific point of view, respects both the autonomy of people carrying HIV as well as the essential interest for the child, in "being" born uninfected and also has the enormous advantage of allowing access to parenthood without destroying the consistency of the message of prevention of sexual contamination.
Englert
Y
Y
Clinique de fertilité et centre de FIV de l'Université libre de Bruxelles, hôpital Erasme, route de Lennik 808, 1070 Bruxelles, Belgique. ferticlin@med.ulb.ac.be
Van Vooren
J P
JP
Liesnard
C
C
Laruelle
C
C
Delbaere
A
A
D019380:Anti-HIV Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001290:Attitude; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000635:transmission*; D006679:HIV Seropositivity; D006801:Humans; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000821:virology; D012099:Reproductive Techniques
D019380:Anti-HIV Agents