Carine Brochier from the European Bioethics Institute (EBI) takes stock of current embryo status in Europe.
She refers to the recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR): Parillo versus Italy, according to which an embryo cannot be considered as “an item or a thing”(cf. Le Coin des Experts Gènéthique du 1er septembre 2015). She stresses that, “the court is not saying that an embryo is a person either”, which shows that the “matter of embryo status has still not been sorted to date” and raises various problems around the issue of abortion, for example. Because,“if an embryo is a person, can we still proceed with abortion?”
She concludes that, “if left in the womb, an embryo will always become a child – that is the novel, fundamental factor”.
Euronews (11/09/2015)