Constructing ‘Health’,Defining ‘Choice’: Legal and Policy Perspectives on the Post-PGD Embryo in Four Jurisdictions

Abstract

Through Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis, embryos created by IVF are selected for transfer to a woman based on particular characterisations, including the presence of genetic markers or a tissue match for a sibling. In this paper we examine the precise language used in the recent policy and regulatory documents of four jurisdictions (the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand) that in any way characterises the post-PGD embryo. We then explore the mutually constructed relationship between how that embryo is characterised and the purposes for which PGD is applied, as well as the types of uses to which the post-PGD embryo is ultimately relegated. As our analysis indicates, based on the information provided through PGD, a number of possible categorisations of the post-PGD embryo emerge depending both on the outcome of PGD, and the initial intention behind the procedure.