ABSTRACT
This chapter considers human embryo research and the termination of pregnancy from both ethical and legal perspectives. It focuses on the controversy surrounding the question of when human life is deemed to have gained moral and legal personality, respectively. Human genome research is providing scientists with knowledge which enables them to hypothese on the genetic determination of disease and genetic predispositions to disorders. In former times aborting a foetus was a crime, and if a person struck a pregnant women after the foetus was formed so as to cause abortion this was classified as 'homicide'. The chapter explores the moral and legal consequences of the new medical technologies for the foetus by identifying the values embodied in the regulation and control of embryo research and the legal termination of pregnancy under English law. When legal personality was explored ambiguity was identified in the common law relating the status of the foetus.
