Religious and non-religious issues of medically assisted reproduction in France: Sexuality, incest and descent.

It is generally held that assisted reproductive technology has dissociated procreation from sexuality - just as the advent of the pill dissociated sexuality from procreation. My study will show, on the contrary, that sexuality in all its dimensions, including the physical dimension of the circulation of bodily substances as well as the psychological dimension of fantasy, is far from having been removed from new methods of reproduction, even if they do indeed dispense with sexual intercourse, because sexuality cannot be reduced to the sexual act. The circulation of gametes has an often-denied sexual dimension which is revealed in the questions raised by monotheistic religions concerning these techniques.