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2 J. Health & Biomedical L. 33 (2006)
Embryos, Fetuses, and Babies: Treated as Persons and Treated with Respect

handle is hein.journals/jhbio2 and id is 49 raw text is: Journal of Health & Biomedical Law, Vol. H No. 1 (2006): 33-67 © 2006 Journal of Health & Biomedical Law Suffolk Universiy Law School Embryos, Fetuses, and Babies: Treated as Persons and Treated with Respect By Robert L. Stenger* I. Introduction The impact of recent advances in medical science and technology upon traditional moral and legal understandings of human existence is perhaps nowhere more dramatic than in developments affecting human reproduction. Late twentieth century developments in assisted reproduction, which offer opportunities for influencing the very origins of individual human life, are comparable to the mid-twentieth century developments in physics, which offered opportunities to manipulate atomic structure. As nuclear physicists and political leaders suddenly had the awesome power of the atom at their disposal, so now scientists raise the possibility of control not only of individual humans but of the human genome itself. The President's Council on Bioethics recognized what was at stake in its March, 2004 report, Reproduction and Reiponsibilioy. On the one hand, capacities emerging from the confluence of reproductive biology, developmental biology and human genetics offer a growing capacity to control the beginnings of human life, especially ex vivo (outside the body). On the other hand: biologically speaking, human procreation represents life's answer to mortality, perpetuating the human species despite the perishability of every one of its members.... Humanly speaking, because these deep Professor of Law, Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, University of Louisville. Professor Stenger is a member of the Human Studies Committee (the Institutional Review Board for University of Louisville Hospital) and of the Hospital Ethics Committee. Professor Stenger also serves on the Matrimonial Tribunal of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville.