Definition of the Beginning of Life and Its Legal Significance

Abstract

The article analyzes the positions of scientists, as well as the current legislation regarding the definition of the beginning of human life in the context of child conception and ensuring the right of human embryo for life. The problem has not only theoretical, but also important practical significance, as the grounds and limits of legal regulation of a number of relations depend on it. The definition of the beginning of life allows for optimal legal regulation, including the provision of legal guarantees to preserve the life of the human embryo. States independently decide on the establishment of prohibition on artificial termination of pregnancy or the time limits after which such a termination is prohibited. Attention is drawn to the development of assisted reproductive technologies, the emergence of the possibility to use cryopreserved embryos, which can be stored for a long time. There is a lack of development of this aspect in science and a small and heterogeneous judicial practice. According to the author, the use of cryopreserved embryos in resolving issues of inheritance of property, as well as after divorce, should be based on a contractual basis. Due to the fact that the legislation allows artificial termination of pregnancy up to a certain period, as well as on medical grounds, the best way to determine the legal capacity of the embryo (foetus) as conditional. Proposals are being made to improve the norms of civil law, including a proposal to call to inheritance for children born as a result of the use of the biomaterial of the testator for in vitro fertilization within six months after testator’s death and born alive after the opening of the inheritance.