Moral status of the embryo. Clinical and legal consequences.

S. Hostiuc

Abstract: The Kantian theory states that the moral status is a fundamental attribute of any moral agents as respect is always directed towards persons and never toward things. By persons he understands moral agents, or beings have moral duties and obligations. Warren defines moral status as to be morally considerable, or to have moral standing. It is to be an entity towards which moral agents have, or can have, moral obligations. If an entity has moral status, then we may not treat it in just any way we please. Moral status is essential for the ethical analysis of many modern bioethical issues including in vitro fertilization, cloning, stem cells, post-human ethics, and so on. The purpose of this article is to succinctly analyze the concept of the moral status of the embryo, and to discuss two main clinical consequences.
DOI:10.18643/gieu.2014.102

Keywords: moral status, embryo, conferred moral status, intrinsic moral status.