There are still many controversies and judicial issues regarding embryo freezing technology.
As early as November 19, 2021, the Xixiangtang District People's Court of Nanning City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, pronounced a verdict on the first frozen embryo return case in Guangxi.
In December 2014, a couple in Guangxi traveled to a hospital to grow embryos because of infertility.
Subsequently, the husband died tragically, and the wife applied to the hospital to retrieve the embryos, but the hospital refused because of the legal, social ethics and other issues.
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However, after the court trial, it was found that the delivery of the 5 frozen embryos stored by Ms. Zhang in the hospital complied with the relevant provisions of the Civil Code in terms of law, ethics and reasonableness, and was judged and supported according to law.
Freezing embryos has once again become a topic of concern.
Embryos, are they human or animal?
According to the provisions of the Civil Code, civil rights and interests are protected by law, and frozen embryos meet the characteristics of civil law, and at the same time have many special features, so they are called "personality objects", which contain special things with future life characteristics.
However, at present, the existing laws on the mainland have not yet clearly stipulated the legal attributes of embryos.
The excessive existence of the embryo between man and matter has the potential to conceive life, so it has a higher moral status than non-living organisms and needs special respect and protection.
As in the appeal news, the frozen embryos involved in the case contained genetic information about the DNA of the plaintiff and her husband, and had the closest bioethic connection with the plaintiff and her husband.
Therefore, the plaintiff and her husband are the right holders of the right to right, and they enjoy civil rights and interests in the custody and disposal of the embryos.
What kind of technology is freezing embryos?
As the only mature way in the world to preserve fertility functions, frozen embryo technology is the embryo obtained through test tube cultivation technology, stored in a liquid nitrogen environment of minus 196 ° C, so as to achieve long-term preservation.
For some infertile couples, in the course of "IVF", it is generally possible to increase the number of mature eggs with the help of ovulation drug stimulation.
In the process of increasing the number of eggs, more than 10 eggs can be grown at a time, but because implanting too many embryos will increase the risk of multiple births, most of the embryos are usually transferred back to the uterine cavity during the "test tube" treatment.
The remaining embryos can be cryopreserved, so as not to be used as a "spare tire" after the subsequent test tube failure, no longer need to perform superovulation, eliminating the pain of injection, but also saving a lot of costs.
Are awakened frozen embryos healthy?
The safety of embryo freezing technology is an issue that all nurturers pay close attention to.
Judging from the current literature and pregnancy cases, whether it is fresh embryos or frozen embryos, the conceived baby is not significantly different from the natural conception, the baby's overall health is good, and the physical development indicators are not obviously abnormal.
However, it is worth noting that the arousal rate of frozen embryos is not 100%, and some embryos will still be damaged or even die after thawing.
Whether the embryo can be fully recovered, in addition to relying on sophisticated cryoprotective technology, the quality of the embryo itself is also a determining factor.
If the quality of the embryo before freezing is not high and there are many fragments, then the overall quality of the cells will be relatively poor, and some cells are prone to damage or even death during the thawing process, and cannot be fully recovered.
If you want to conceive a healthy "ice baby", you should also pay special attention to the quality of the embryo.
Is it safe to freeze embryos?
Compared with simple sperm and egg freezing, embryo freezing technology is more mature.
Although eggs are more sensitive to temperature, there is still a chance of loss of recovery after freezing.
Therefore, the selection of blastocyst freezing is the most ideal way to preserve fertility in the current fertility technology.
bibliography:
[1] Yixing Municipal People's Court of Jiangsu Province (2013) Yimin Chuzi No. 2729 Judgment
[2] Li Guoqiang. The Correction of the Antagonistic Logic of "Man-Thing" in the Civil Code: The Starting Point of the Interpretation of the Civil Rights System[J].Journal of Social Sciences of Jilin University,2022,62(01):162-173+238-239.
[3] Wu Qi,Cai Mengjie. After the death of the husband, the wife sues the hospital to return the frozen embryos[N]. People's Court Daily, 2021-11-24(003).