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4. The Legal Status of the Embryo in Vivo and in Vitro: Research on and the Medical Treatment of Embryos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2021

H.J.J. Leenen
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Extract

Modern developments in biomedical science and technology have raised legal problems regarding the initial phase of human life. The possibility of genetic manipulation and of influencing the human genome is in sight, embryos are already being treated in utero, and in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer have been successfully performed. Embryos have been fertilized in vivo, flushed from the womb. and implanted in surrogate mothers.

These developments have raised questions not only for family law but also for health law. These questions include the permissibility and regulation of genetic manipulation, the equitable distribution of the new techniques, the consequences for future generations of present-day decisions, the right to procreation, the role of the state, and the freedom of parents, especially the pregnant woman, in relation to the embryo. Other problems involve confidentiality and privacy, the relationships among the several people who are producing the child, and the status of the embryo in vivo and in vitro.

Type
Part I: New Reproductive Technologies
Information
Law, Medicine and Healthcare , Volume 14 , Issue 3-4 , September 1986 , pp. 129 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1986

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References

See Leenen, H.J.J., Rechten van mensen in de gezondheidszorg (Human rights in health care) (The Netherlands: Samson, 1978), chap. 4.Google ScholarPubMed
This is regulated in the civil codes of many countries, such as section 2 of the Dutch civil code.Google Scholar
Leenen, , supra note 1, chap. 6 par. 2.Google Scholar
See Leenen, H. Pinet, G. Prims, A., Trends in Health Legislation (Paris: WHO, Masson, 1985).Google Scholar
In my opinion the donors can make only this decision and the decision whether to allow medical treatment. They are not entitled, for instance, to allow experiments that would not be in the interest of the child the embryo has the potential to become.Google Scholar
When one or both of the gametes used to create an embryo in vitro or in vivo are from another woman or man, in my opinion, the rules for artificial insemination apply in analogous fashion. Since sperm donors usually remain anonymous, they yield their rights. According to law, the father of the child to be born is the husband of the pregnant woman. Thus it is reasonable that he should be involved in the decision-making process.Google Scholar
But see Rubellin-Decichi, J., Congéelation d'embryons, Fecondation in vitro, mèere de substitution (Paris, 1985), and the Warnock Report.Google Scholar
See, e.g. Waller Report, Warnock Report, and the report of the Dutch Health Council.Google Scholar
Some U.S. courts (in Georgia and Colorado), however, have ruled that a woman has to undergo medical treatment in the interest of the fetus.Google Scholar