Assisted reproductive technologies and prenatal diagnostic have both taken off rapidly due to progress in knowledge and techniques, and changes in the demands of society. The corollary of this development is a need for the monitoring of medical practices and for the harmonisation of patient management conditions.

Practitioners would also like to see collective reflection on the stakes for society of activities in these domains.

The Agence de la biomédecine combines in a single authority, for the first time, the activities of assisted reproductive technologies and prenatal and genetic diagnosis. Its mission is to accredit the practitioners concerned, to authorise certain activities, such as prenatal diagnosis, and the functioning of certain bodies, such as pluridisciplinary centres, and to ensure that the law is respected.

It is also responsible for establishing and publishing a detailed inventory of the resources used and the results obtained in France.

The agency is also required to set up registers for monitoring the subsequent health of women undergoing in vitro fertilisation, the children born after the use of this technique and of women donating ovocytes.

- To authorise or to provide and expert opinion on activities and centres
- To accredit practitioners
- To evaluate activities
- To monitor the health of women undergoing assisted reproductive technologies procedures, the resulting children and the ovocyte donors
To monitor the clinical and biological activities of medically assisted procreation