The parliamentary debates on bioethics in France: Analyzing an arena of discussions

Each revision of the law on bioethics triggers a political and social debate in public space and communication. This article examines the analysis of this arena of discourse during the second revision of the bioethics law in 2011, in order to observe what representational systems are involved by the members of the French parliament to think about and discuss on these socially important issues. More specifically, we focus on what may have led parliamentarians to decide in 2011 to maintain the anonymity of gamete donation, whereas this issue had been at the heart of intense public controversy since the mid-2000s. (C) 2020 Societe Francaise de Psychologie. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.