The status of frozen embryos at Irish law
By the eighth amendment to the Irish Constitution, adopted in 1983, Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution now provides:
The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.
Yesterday, in a closely-watched case and a long-awaited decision, the High Court gave judgment on the question whether in vitro embryos constituted ‘unborn’ for the purposes of this provision. In MR v TR [2006] IEHC 359 (15 November 2006), McGovern J held that they did not.…