From Rescuing Frozen Embryos to Respecting the Limits of Nature: Reframing the Embryo Adoption Debate

Mass Pre-Embryo Adoption

Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics ◽

10.1017/s0963180198701136 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 101-103 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

FRANCESCO DEMARTIS

Keyword(s):

General Population ◽

Catholic Church ◽

Frozen Embryos ◽

Embryo Adoption ◽

Event Triggered ◽

Catholic Association ◽

The Catholic Church

On August 1, 1996, due to the expiration of the five-year preservation limit provided by British law for unclaimed and legally unusable frozen embryos, 3,300 embryos were thawed and discarded. In Italy the news of this impending event triggered many reactions among scholars as well as the general population. In Massa, a little town in Tuscany, a most unusual response arose. Two hundred women banded together and asked to carry out a prenatal adoption. Their purpose in making this request was to avoid what they believed to be mass infanticide. Many of the women were married and already had children. They belonged to a local Catholic association. Nonetheless, their reaction was their own response to numerous appeals to respect life by the Catholic Church worldwide and by Italian Catholic thinkers especially.

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Serum levels of E2 and hCG rise at a faster rate in pregnancies arising from the replacement of fresh rather than frozen embryos

Journal of the Society for Gynecologic Investigation ◽

10.1016/s1071-5576(97)86500-8 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 142A-142A

Author(s):

S SPANDORFER ◽

A KOWALIK ◽

H LIU ◽

G SCHATTMAN ◽

L VEECK ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Serum Levels ◽

Frozen Embryos

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Phenomenological Experience of Embryo Adoption

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e621092013-001 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Jaclyn M. Davis ◽

Christina Lee-Kim ◽

Tamara L. Anderson ◽

Reginald Finger

Keyword(s):

Phenomenological Experience ◽

Embryo Adoption

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Evans v United Kingdom: Frozen Embryos and Conflicting Rights

Edinburgh Law Review ◽

10.3366/elr.2007.11.3.446 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 446-449 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Lorenzo Zucca

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Frozen Embryos

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When Does a Right to Life Arise?

The Oxford Handbook of Children and the Law ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190694395.013.3 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 47-64

Author(s):

Lynn D. Wardle

Keyword(s):

Severe Disabilities ◽

State Regulation ◽

Biological Science ◽

Human Being ◽

Right To Life ◽

Legal Rules ◽

Frozen Embryos ◽

The Right ◽

Legal Right

The question of when a legal right to life first arises in the course of a human being’s development is pertinent to a variety of contexts, including protection of prenatal life from injury by persons other than the gestational mother, what to do with frozen embryos when the couple who created them divorces, and how to treat children born with severe disabilities, as well as the more familiar context of state regulation, restriction, or prohibition of abortion. This chapter first summarizes social and biological science findings relevant to this question, then details development of legal rules and constitutional doctrine pertaining to abortion regulation before contrasting that with protections for prenatal life in other contexts. It concludes that the most coherent answer to the question when a right to life arises is that the right to life is coextensive with the biological life of the human being, and that a legal right to remain alive arises when a human being comes into existence and continues until it ceases to be a human being—that is, when its life has ended. This might provide justification for greater restrictions on abortion, but that could depend on additional considerations.

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