ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the position in Ireland regarding human embryos which, although in many ways similar to the German situation, is significantly different from other European countries. The problem of the surplus embryo is mainly ethical rather than legal in nature. In Ireland the issues are somewhat complicated by the long-running debates concerning abortion and the constitutional protection accorded to the right to life of the unborn. If the ‘unborn’ means ‘with the potential to be born’, ‘capable of being born’, or ‘on the way to being born’ as has been suggested by some writers in Ireland then, in the author's opinion, the pre-implanatation embryo does not qualify for this constitutional protection as it does not come within any of these expressions. If the Pro-life groups are of the view that the embryo at the preimplantation stage is a human being then surely present practice in Ireland could be regarded as a form of indirect abortion.
