Review article
The Issue of Consent in Bio-Medically Assisted Reproduction Procedures (The Case of “Evans V. the United Kingdom”)
Viktorija Žnidaršič Skubic
; Faculty of law, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Abstract
The article deals with medical law problems that can occur in the field of medical treatment of sub-fertility and infertility. As illustrated by a specific case, decided by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (Evans v. the United Kingdom), assisted procreation involves a number of moral, ethical and consequently legal dilemmas. Since the introduction of the modern in vitro fertilization procedures that allow extra-corporal fertilization and the preservation of embryos for the future implantation, the question arises concerning the time of completed fertilization for such an embryo. Is it the time when fertilization in vitro is finished, or the time when embryo that was fertilized in vitro is implanted into the woman’s body? The answer to this question is decisive in cases when a couple, after the preservation of their embryos, divorce (separate) or do not agree on the question of the implementation of an embryo(s) into the wife’s (partner’s) body.
Keywords
medical law; freedom of decision on childbirth; right to reproduce; bio-medically assisted procreation; informed consent; withdrawal of consent; divorce; legal and ethical status of embryo
Hrčak ID:
29142
URI
Publication date:
30.10.2008.
Visits: 3.481 *