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When does human life begin? What or who is a human being? This concise booklet addresses these questions, which are fundamental to the biotechnology of human reproduction, including pre-natal and pre-implantation diagnosis, assisted reproduction, human embryo research and cloning. Five chapters examine 'The Beginning of Human Life' from different perspectives...
Natallie Evans, 31, of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, who had her ovaries removed after being diagnosed with cancer, previously had six embryos created and frozen, before breaking up with her boyfriend Howard Johnston. Lorraine Hadley, 38, from Baswich, Staffordshire, who had a 17-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, had two embryos previously...
From a Christian perspective, the moral status of the embryo is one of the key pressure-points in ethical debates about post-coital contraception, therapeutic cloning, preimplantation diagnosis, and artificial reproduction. The issue, which has profound implications for our practice as doctors, has divided Christians for centuries and remains controversial within CMF.[1,2,3,4,5]...
The status of the embryo is one issue that has profound implications for the way we practise medicine; not least for the advice we give about contraception. Contraceptives usually act by one of three ways; by preventing ovulation, by interfering with sperm and ovum transport, or by preventing implantation of...
Diverging views The status of the human embryo is central to debates on the ethics of genetics, embryo research, infertility treatment and post-coital contraception. Among Christians there has been disagreement throughout history, and the matter has been hotly debated before in CMF, both in the Journal of the CMF [1,2] and...
The large number of abortions in the UK each year is a cause of concern for all those who care about human life. However, one question that is fundamental to this issue and which has yet to be answered is that of what actually constitutes human life? Many people ignore...
The key issue Andrew Thornett has clearly identified the key issue in the abortion debate, namely 'What constitutes a human being?' as Scripture clearly forbids the killing of the same.[1] When does a zygote or embryo become a human being and therefore assume the right not to be killed? He argues...
