프랑스 생명윤리법 개정과 가족 규범의 재구성: 싱글 여성과 레즈비언 커플의 보조생식기술 사용을 둘러싼 쟁점과 시사점

The paper aims to analyze the meanings and limits of the legal guarantee of lesbian couples’ and single women’s access to assisted reproductive technology (ART), focusing on the recently revised French Bioethics law. Thanks to the latest amendment of the Bioethics law in 2021, various forms of family structure outside that of the heteronormative structure have gained legal recognition in France, and the right of single women as well as lesbian couples to use ART without discrimination is now ensured. Such change is seen as challenging the norms of the heterosexual nuclear family and considered to be an important mark of progress for the expansion of LGBTQ+ individuals’ reproductive rights. However, regardless of legal advancements, the French Bioethics law is not without limits, as it still maintains the heterosexual nuclear family as the most ideal model, and sustains discriminatory norms against LGBTQ+ individuals and single women’s family formation. In addition, several issues such as the exclusion of transgender people from access to reproductive rights and the age limit regarding access to ART for women indicate that legal equality does not necessarily translate to practical equality. As legal debates on non-marital childbearing and ART are in full swing in South Korea, the French case provides important lessons that are pertinent to the creation of a legal and institutional framework that guarantees more inclusive and equal rights to reproduction as well as family formation.