The legal status of the human embryo from the perspective of the right to life

Abstract

This paper reviews the discussions that are held on the human embryo’s status from human right's perspective. During pregnancy, the embryo is part of the mother’s body and lacks its own legal status. Defining, limiting, and detailing the right to life should be clearly set in all legal texts. Evaluation of the legal, medical, ethical and philosophical approaches of defining life and the right to life and its prime beneficiaries for gaining a unitary position on the human embryo’s status. This study is a review of the literature, based on the synthesis of articles, courses, legal texts and case-laws of European Court of Human Rights published in the period 1977-2021, 31 scientific sources were researched. This article includes publications identified through Google Search Engines, PubMed Databases, etc. The new reproductive technologies allows interference in the whole process of human creation, from conception to the establishment of characters such as the choice of sex which, in a world ruled by good faith would only bring benefits, but in reality can be used as a discriminatory tool. Despite the undeniable importance of this right, none of the international documents that value the right to life have come to define it. Intrauterine life occurs at the time of conception, and the legal implications can be observed only after the embryo becomes a fetus, but its right to life is vulnerable to the absolute right to life of the pregnant woman. Human embryos, through their potential to become human beings, are a powerful symbol of human life, but it is not possible to grant it an equivalent status to individuals, or any direct collision with the interests of already born human beings would deprive it of any legal protection.