MEDICAL DERESPONSIBILIZATION

The medical profession is facing a serious challenge. The increase of technology, risks, and costs of modern medicine leads to the intervent ion of third parties within the medical decision-making process. This is particularly true in reproductive medicine, where a large part of m edical activities are not curative, not linked with actual abnormaliti es, but preventive, and frequently oriented more to desire and conveni ence than to needs. These third parties belong to the fields of econom ics, administration, law, public opinion, mediatic power. This trend i s universal, with some specific characteristics varying by country. Th e increased risk of litigation leads to an increase of all aspects of defensive medicine, with obvious medical, practical, economic deleteri ous consequences.