2 - ‘The Embryo’ in Law Today

Summary

This analysis traces the history of the 1990 Act (as amended) and summarises the present regulatory framework governing the embryo in vitro with reference to its legal ‘special status’. It briefly summarises some of the key arguments put forward in the Warnock Report relating to the moral and legal status of the embryo in vitro and the enactment of these arguments in law, including subsequent amendments of the framework. The Chapter finds that, like its historical counterparts, embryonic, moral, scientific, and other forms of process were important considerations for the Report, which provided the intellectual basis for the 1990 Act.