The moral status of the embryo


The question of the moral status of the human embryo is highly controversial because of its links to the practices of abortion, IVF and stem cell research. Many people have very strong feelings on the topic and much has been written both for and against. I do not have strong feelings in either direction and have had little to do with the debate so far. However, I recently came to realize that the claim that embryos have full moral status has much stronger implications than is typically acknowledged. Indeed, its implications are so strong that they would give pause to even its most ardent supporters. I thus felt compelled to explain these implications in my paper, The Scourge: moral implications of natural embryo loss, which has been published by the American Journal of Bioethics. Rather than try to summarize my argument, I will just point you to the article itself. The argument within is very easy to follow, even for the non-specialist. The journal published my article with seven peer commentaries and my response to the commentaries.