Reformbedürftigkeit des Fortpflanzungsmedizinrechts

In Germany, technologies and procedures that serve to induce pregnancy are strongly regulated or forbidden by the embryo protection law. Marie-Theres Merrem initially takes a critical look at the current legal situation, with particular emphasis on egg, semen and embryo donation, elective single embryo transfer, gestational surrogacy, post-mortem fertilization, and egg freezing. Based on this, implementation proposals for a renewed Reproductive Medicine Act are presented, which takes current scientific knowledge, social values and the needs of those affected into account.

Spezieszugehörigkeit und Entwicklungspotential – Was impliziert ihre biotechnische Manipulierbarkeit für das Recht des Embryonenschutzes?

In the German legislation on embryo protection, the scope of protection is defined by its membership to the human species and by the embryo’s inherent potential to develop into a born human being. Both criteria refer to well-known bioethical arguments: the argument from species membership and the potentiality argument. With recent progresses in biotechnology it has, however, become possible manipulate the development potential of human embryos and to blur the boundaries between species. Hence, we must ask, whether both criteria (and with them the arguments) can still hold their ground in bioethics and biomedical law. In my article, I argue, that the aforementioned biotechnological techniques do not require to abandon the arguments from species membership and potentiality. There is, however, a need to clarify what the criteria of species membership and inherent potentiality actually refer to in the relevant laws, i. e. the embryo protection law and the stem cell law.