[The birth of the international conference "Biology and the future of man", Paris, 18-24 September 1974]. / La naissance de la conférence internationale « Biologie et devenir de l'homme ¼, Paris, 18-24 septembre 1974.

In 1974, a symposium was organized in Paris entitled "Biology and the future of man". It was focused on the analysis of "new powers of science and new duties of man" in the field of medically assisted procreation, agriculture, demography, and environmental issues. This small introductory text begins by describing the circumstances that led to the organization of this prestigious conference. Then, in order to go further than the silent framework of the presentation of the themes, we will focus on the report of Dr. Robert Edwards on medically assisted procreation, we will recall the duel between Jacques Monod and Jérôme Lejeune on abortion, then we will give center stage to physicians like Jean Bernard and Alexandre Minkowski about the right to die, and finally we will remind the conclusion brought to the conference by Georges Canguilhem.