The Unity of Jurisprudence, Legal and Moral Criteria between Killing a Frozen Embryo and Abortion

Document Type : Scholarly Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Department of Islamic Jurisprudence, Imam Sadiq university, Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant Professor Department Law, Imam Sadiq university, Tehran, Iran

3 MA student of Family Law in Imam Sadiq University,Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Infertility, which is one of the most important problems of human societies, has been solved to some extent with the help of one of the achievements of medical knowledge, i.e., freezing the fetus resulting from the artificial and ectopic fertilization of the parental gametes. Now, the freezing and storage of embryos in freezing banks will cause jurisprudential, legal and social issues in this field, one of which is the existence of common criteria between the destruction of frozen embryos and abortion. Therefore, the basic question in this research is: Is there a unity of criterion between killing frozen embryos as a part of laboratory embryos and abortion from the point of view of jurisprudence, legal and moral? The current research has been conducted in documentary- library style and by descriptive-analytical method, the studies shows, there is a unity between the destruction of frozen embryos and abortion, in this sense, the frozen embryo as an ectopic coagulated sperm, like an intrauterine embryo, is a potential human being that can be actualized and has the right to life and human dignity, because from a legal point of view, a human being has the right to life and respect from the moment of the formation of the smallest part of existence and its eliminating at any stage is against the morality and human dignity of the fetus and against the relationship of trust between the parents and fetus and it is not acceptable. Also, eliminating a human being at any stage violates one of the purposes of marriage, i.e. childbearing, which is one of the common criteria of killing a frozen embryo and abortion; therefore, the sanctity of loss is true in both cases, and the coagulation of sperm inside the womb (a common thing) or its outside, is the origin of human creation and the minimum level of humanity has been reached in it, and the condition for the fetus to have the right to life, to be fertilized and be born alive; therefore, the formation and development in the womb does not have the characteristics that the only right to life be exclusive to the fetus in the womb. From this point of view, some jurists believe that it is necessary to be careful to preserve frozen embryos and they consider the elimination of frozen embryos as abortion and require payment of ransom.

Keywords

Main Subjects

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Biannual Journal of Family Law And Jurisprudence
Volume 29, Issue 80
April 2024
Pages 105-135

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