Status of embryos ‘precarious’ in absence of law

THE failure of successive governments to write law regulating assisted reproduction left the human embryos at the heart of a major legal battle in a “very precarious existence”, a High Court judge has ruled.

Mr Justice Brian McGovern said legislation neither defined what was meant by the term ‘unborn’ as contained in the Constitution, nor set out the protections that should be afforded to test-tube embryos existing outside the womb.

In the absence of legislation, Justice McGovern said he could decide that the three frozen embryos in question were not ‘unborn’ the intended meaning of the Constitution and so were not entitled to the same protection as a foetus in the womb.