ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the relationship between the parents and the foetus is of such significance that it is permissible for the parents to demand the death of the foetus as part of an abortion. It examines the context of abortion and ectogenesis, including abortion requested because of some defect in the foetus, and practical issues that would arise if ectogenesis was to be used as an alternative to traditional abortion. Foetal value is in many ways dependent upon the special relationship that it will have with its parents. As many defects are now being detected early in gestation. The value that the parents places on its life, the extrinsic value, determines whether the infant will have the moral status of a person, or a non-person. Prenatal diagnostic testing now makes it possible to detect a wide variety of foetal defects prior to birth. Prenatal investigations are very attractive from the economic point of view.
