ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING THE MORAL STATUS OF THE HUMAN EMBRYO

The moral status of the human embryo is still a controversial problem, regarding medical, philosophically and religious context. The embryo is considered as the principal element of the human biotechnology and his ontological status is essential for our attitude towards embryos in case of abortion, prenatal diagnosis, in vitro fertilization, embryo manipulation, therapeutic cloning, artificial reproduction, embryo research and genetic engineering. The legitimacy of the embryo studies is still a subject of debate in relation to the moral status of an embryo; the 14-th day from conception seems to represent the mostly accepted border.