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Add to FavoritesIF CORPORATIONS ARE LEGAL PERSONS UNDER THE LAW - WHY NOT EMBRYOS.
Since personhood is a legal designation that assigns certain rights under the law, personhood can be granted to entities that are not human. Were this not true, corporations would not be persons under the law. But, corporations are legal persons so why not embryos?
When a sperm penetrates an egg, a new and separate creature is formed. The new creature, while carrying DNA of both the egg and sperm, is chromosomally distinct. A totally new and different creature. Not a clone of one or the other. In this way, and as an example, eyes - in humans - can be different in color from the eye color of the sperm and egg provider. This is because of how the chromosomal pool is disbursed, while gene carrying the chromosome is recessive or dominant and other elements of the creative process. In this way, the mother and father are said to have "created" a new child. However, since mother and father are not the designers of the method by which the creation actually takes life and self determines, the term "creator" of the human species remains debated to this day. The mother and father may have provided the egg and the sperm to a fertility clinic. This is called a "donation" to the clinic whether the parties are married or single.
When the creature takes on the separate identity but carries the DNA of the egg and sperm provider, that creature is designated by the science community to be of the same species as the egg and sperm provider. In the human species, sociologists and psychologist call the humans who provide the egg and sperm the mother and the father. The rise of technological terms to identify the mother and father of the new human creature have added to the terminology. Though reproductive technologies might call upon a mother and a father to donate eggs and sperm or anonymous 3d party male or females might do the same thing, once the egg and sperm of human unite, the parents of the embryo are still named the mother and the father.
In so far as mothers and fathers are identified as humans under the law, then certain rights adhere to them as human beings. One of the many rights that adhere to Mom and Dad is the right to have no harm done to them without those who do the harm subject to answering to a court. With those protections in place, the new creature cannot be manipulated except in ways already identified in the Hippocratic Oath. Even the new Mom and Dad could not order the engineering of a sex change for their own purposes. However, genetic health of the new creature could be maintained by Mom and Dad under the "do no harm" dictate that the Hippocratic Oath of the medical professional who might be assigned to bring the embryo into it's next developmental stage.
The only thing that seems to interrupt the logical conclusion of people of good will who want to protect a developing generation in the embryonic stage seems to be other interest of third parties who can vote for or against any legislator who would propose such a thing. So, corporations are named persons and embryo's are not. It is not because it does not make sense in any legal way. It is a dangerous territory, however, for those who stand for election once proposing such a thing
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Learn more about this author, Judy Joyce.
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No
As more women begin to contemplate having children later in life, the use of alternative methods of conception have increased. More women are turning to invitro fertilization, sperm banks and surrogacy to help them obtain the child they have always wanted. The use of IVF has led to problems in and of itself. In order to ensure that there is even one child to be inserted and that this embryo implants several eggs are usually fertilized outside of the body. Once the fertilized eggs become viable embryo's the decision must be made as to how many of them will be inserted. They usually choose to implant two or three.
Once the number of embryo's is chosen then many decisions can present themselves along the way. One of these questions is, in the even that more then one embryo takes, is the couple willing to raise twins, triplets, even quadruplets? If not will they be willing to consider selective reduction? As if that alone isn't enough, matters are complicated further when the couple must decide what is to be done with the non implanted embryo's.Most couples choose to store the viable embryo's and some even allow "adoption" of their embryo's in which a surrogate agrees to have the embryo implanted and carry it to term, raising it as her own child. While these are all valid options it seems that it all goes back to the same question that has been asked since the beginning.
When does life begin?
If you were to look at the embryo's under a microscope the lay person would be hard pressed to distinguish these cells from that of any other part of the body. They are simply cells in a dish that have divided several times. There is no brain, no heart beat, no fingers or toes. To consider these cells "people" with equal rights would cause congestion of the court system, a halting of women seeking fertility treatments and would begin to unravel court decisions such as Roe v. Wade.
Again, all things being relative, if you consider cells in a petri dish to be a person, then abortion is suddenly murder as is stem cell research. The truth is there is nothing even resembling a "person" at this stage and medically there is no child. However, when you consider the religious aspects of when life truly begins you can then see why the debate becomes so heated.
There may never be a solution that makes every side happy when dealing with the question of "When does life begin?" If the idea of destruction of unused embryo's does not sit well with your conscience there are other options open to couples who would like to have a child but don't like the idea of keeping their potential "children" in storage at cryobanks. All options must be weighed and a solution that doesn't weigh heavily on your mind must be reached. Rest assured, there is a solution that will allow for people to have a child without sacrificing their values and personal beliefs.
Learn more about this author, Martina Billings, RN.
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