There have been questions about the situation in France asked within the newsgroup - this article might help clear things up a bit!
For many years sterilisation (both vasectomy and tubal ligation) have been illegal in France, because of the 19th century "Code Napoleon", which proscribes acts of so-called 'self mutilation'. Doctors performing vasectomies in France risk criminal charges, though there hasn't been an actual prosecution on the issue for over forty years. Nevertheless, the law surrounding vasectomy in France is sufficiently vague enough to prevent most French doctors risking criminal prosecution or civil litigation if they perform the service. So few are performed that the most recent statistics on global contraceptive usage published by the United Nations lists the number of vasectomies performed in France as 'nil or negligible'.
Organisations such as Marie Stopes Iternational have been trying to advertise their service to French men. But despite trying to advertise vasectomy in France for nearly a year, many French media owners have refused to accept posters and press adverts developed for the campaign.
With the freedom of the internet, organisations can advertise vasectomy services which are not subject to third party regulation or restriction. Marie Stopes International took advantage of this in August 2000 to advertise it's "Vasectomy tourist" campaign.
In June 2001 the law changed.
A French visitor to the newsgroup posted the following in response to a question on the current legal status of vasectomy in France:-
It is true that until last June the French law prohibited vasectomy as well as tubal ligation, although it was sometimes done by surgeons. But mentalities are changing slowly. There were hot discussions about abortion and a chapter was included about voluntary sterilisation. For those who read french, HERE is the link to the french law voted in may 2001. Whereas the SENATE PAGE page gives the links to the reports of debates and previous versions of the law.
Now, a few words on my
experience.
I'm 33 y/o French male and I wanted to have vasectomy since I
don't want to father kids. I went to visit the
vasectomy-information website and tried to find French urologists
that would perform the operation on me. I went to a public
hospital just at the time when the law was discussed and knowing
that some physicians were practicing voluntary sterilisation
(albeit forbidden) asked, if it become legal, they will perform
it on me. The answer was finally no because they did not want to
do it on childfree men.
Later, I found the mail
address of a medical office in paris and asked once again for the
same thing. They gave me stupid arguments against it pretending
they were in the law:-
minimal age 35, minimal number of children 3
Actually the only
obligations are the following:-
It can't be done on a minor
The patient should express his/her free motivated deliberate
will, knowing the consequences.
It can only be done in a hospital/clinic after consultation of a
urologist.
At first meeting, the
physician has to:-
Inform the requester of medical risks
Give him a written information file
4 months minimum separate the operation from the first visit to
the physician
The volunteer must express his/her will through a written
consent.
The urologist can not be compelled to perform this voluntary sterilisation but, if he disagrees with it, he has to inform the requester on the first visit.
So, the need of such an operation was not that urgent. I will search again once it becomes really necessary and unless urologists become better open minded. I think I'll go abroad (Spain, England, Germany, Netherlands, UK...). Plenty of them advertize on the web, including Marie Stopes.