Because they cannot benefit from medically assisted procreation (AMP), some people resort to so-called artisanal insemination to make their desire for a child a reality. This practice is not, however, devoid of risks both at the legal and health levels.

Artisanal insemination, or non-medical artificial insemination, consists of injecting at the bottom of the vagina, at the time of ovulation, sperm collected outside the course of ART and sperm donation supervised. The simple procedure does not require intercourse or sophisticated equipment. A sterile pipette or syringe without a needle is sufficient.

This artisanal insemination can be carried out with the sperm of a man who offers his “services” on specialized dating sites or on social networks, on a voluntary basis or against remuneration. The recipient woman or couple can also call on a friend or acquaintance for this “homemade” sperm donation. There is also, still on the internet, frozen semen.

These are most often single women wishing to raise their child alone or couples of homosexual women who cannot benefit from ART. Unlike other European countries, only heterosexual couples can benefit from ART in France at present. Two homosexual couples (2 men on one side, 2 women on the other) can also resort to artisanal insemination as part of a so-called co-parenting project.

Some women, even some heterosexual couples in which the man suffers from sterility, also make the choice of artisanal insemination in order to be able to know the identity of the donor and to choose him, but also to leave the possibility to the child resulting from this donation. to know his biological father, which the law currently does not allow in France.

Finally, it should be noted that some heterosexual couples use artisanal insemination in order to conceive to alleviate a problem in their intimate life, for example when the man has difficulty ejaculating in the woman’s vagina.

The use of artisanal sperm donation is prohibited in France. It violates the rules of sperm donation governed by the law of bioethics (1), and in particular these two major ethical principles:

• anonymity: donors and recipients cannot know their respective identities;
• free: the law prohibits any remuneration in return for the donation of spermatozoa.

By virtue of article 511-9 of the penal code, “the fact of obtaining gametes constitutes a payment, whatever the form, with the exception of the payment of the services provided by the establishments carrying out the preparation and the conservation of these gametes, is punished by five years imprisonment and a fine of 75 euros. The same penalties shall apply to the act of intervening to promote the obtaining of gametes against payment, whatever the form, or of delivering to third parties, for consideration, gametes obtained from donations. “

Finally, the practice exposes another legal risk: that the sperm donor requires recognition of the child resulting from the donation, against the will of the mother.

In France, sperm donation is supervised and carried out within one of the 23 CECOS (Centers for the Study and Conservation of Eggs and Sperm) located in CHUs.

From the selection of the candidate donor to the use of the collected sperm, the procedure complies with the strict health safety rules imposed by law (art. 511-11 Penal Code, L. 1273-4 of the Public Health Code). For each donor, an in-depth medical assessment is carried out with serologies (HIV, hepatitis, syphilis, CMV), a genetic survey, a karyotype, a spermogram to ensure the quality of the spermatozoa and a sperm culture to verify the absence of ‘infection.

If the very act of insemination does not in itself entail any particular risk (provided that the pipette or syringe is not inserted too far into the vagina), returning to an artisanal sperm donation exposes itself to a risk. infectious and genetic.

As for the effectiveness of artisanal insemination, it is lower than that of artificial insemination carried out as part of an ART course because the quality of the sperm is not controlled. In addition, the woman does not benefit from an ovarian stimulation treatment making it possible to obtain a better quality ovulation and therefore to optimize the chances of pregnancy, as is the case in legal artificial insemination.

In France, the Biomedicine Agency oversees the practice of assisted reproduction and gamete donation (spermatozoa and oocytes). The Agency makes various information sites available to the general public:

• on sperm donation: www.dondespermatozoides.fr
• on the different techniques of ART: www.procreation-medicale.fr

The easiest way, however, is to consult your usual gynecologist who, if he does not practice ART himself, will refer the couple to competent people.