Frozen embryos ‘have no legal status unless implanted’

AN EMBRYO created as a result of fertility treatment has no legal status here and is not entitled to constitutional protection unless implanted in a woman’s womb and may be legally destroyed prior to any such implantation, lawyers for the state have told the Supreme Court.

Donal O’Donnell SC, for the Attorney General, said an embryo is not an “unborn” within the meaning of article 40.3.3, the anti-abortion amendment to the constitution. He said because of this and the absence of fertility treatment regulation, an embryo has no status under Irish law.

As such, people who undergo fertility treatment resulting in embryos are entitled to decide what happens to them, he said.