- 著者
-
盛永 審一郎
- 出版者
- 日本医学哲学・倫理学会
- 雑誌
- 医学哲学 医学倫理 (ISSN:02896427)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.18, pp.12-23, 2000-12-15 (Released:2018-02-01)
Pre-implantation diagnosis (PDG) is a new technique which makes it possible to investigate hereditary diseases and chromosomal defects of an embryo produced by in vitro fertilization (IVF) prior to its implantation into a woman's uterus. Embryos with unwanted genetic characteristics can then be destroyed, and only 'healthy embryos' implanted. PDG thereby is offered to couples at high risk for having children with genetic disorders. This technique is already available as a service for those couples in developed countries. In Germany, PDG is implicitly prohibited by the Embryo Protection Act (Gesetz zum Schutz von Embryonen =ESchG). Because of this under the ESchG, it is an offense to fertilise a human egg for any purpose other than to start a pregnancy in the woman who produced the egg. Also, no embryo research is permitted and the removal of a totipotent cell is prohibited. Under the ESchG, the embryo attains full moral status at conception. However, German Criminal Code (s. 218) surprisingly allows interruption of a pregnancy up to the first 12 weeks, and up to birth, where there is a risk to the woman's life, or a risk of serious physical or mental injury to the woman. In practice, the risk of mental injury to the woman is interpreted to encompass abortion following pre-natal diagnosis. There are some arguments which recognize the application of this new technique without amending the law. For example, the report of the German Medical Association takes the view that there are no differences between pre-natal and pre-implantation diagnosis, if PDG is performed on a embryo at the non-totipotent cell stage (2000). But is it a woman's right to select abortion on eugenic grounds, compatible with the view that human zygotes have moral status? In this paper I will try to discuss those ethical issues which are specific to, or intensified by, pre-implantation diagnosis.