4. The Legal Status of the Embryo in Vivo and in Vitro : Research on and the Medical Treatment of Embryos

See Leenen H.J.J. , Rechten van mensen in de gezondheidszorg (Human rights in health care) (The Netherlands: Samson, 1978), chap. 4.

This is regulated in the civil codes of many countries, such as section 2 of the Dutch civil code.

Leenen , supra note 1, chap. 6 par. 2.

See Leenen H. Pinet G. Prims A. , Trends in Health Legislation (Paris: WHO, Masson, 1985).

In my opinion the donors can make only this decision and the decision whether to allow medical treatment. They are not entitled, for instance, to allow experiments that would not be in the interest of the child the embryo has the potential to become.

When one or both of the gametes used to create an embryo in vitro or in vivo are from another woman or man, in my opinion, the rules for artificial insemination apply in analogous fashion. Since sperm donors usually remain anonymous, they yield their rights. According to law, the father of the child to be born is the husband of the pregnant woman. Thus it is reasonable that he should be involved in the decision-making process.

But see Rubellin-Decichi J. , Congéelation d'embryons, Fecondation in vitro, méere de substitution (Paris, 1985), and the Warnock Report.

See, e.g. Waller Report, Warnock Report, and the report of the Dutch Health Council.

Some U.S. courts (in Georgia and Colorado), however, have ruled that a woman has to undergo medical treatment in the interest of the fetus.