Can and Should Human Embryos be “Rescued” from Developmental Demise?

Abstract

The notion of “rescuing” human oocytes or embryos that are presumed to be dysfunctional owing to morphology or performance in vitro raises fundamental questions of what is “normal” and whether “rescue” is necessarily in the best “interests” of the entity being rescued. Before I address this, let us discuss the meaning of “normality” as we have problems deciding what this is for adults, let alone for embryos. Here in Australia, the New South Wales Supreme Court was recently asked to decide on whether a disabled child can sue its doctor for being born: the so-called “wrongful life” principle. Similar cases have been dismissed in the UK and France but others have succeeded in the USA. The three particular cases here concerned a young woman born blind, deaf, mentally retarded and in need of constant care after her mother contracted rubella in pregnancy; a boy born following a failed vasectomy who has intellectual disability, speech impairment and facial disfiguration, and a boy born with an inherited blood-clotting disease conceived by in vitro fertilization (IVF). In the last case the claim is that suitable genetic screening could have prevented the embryo from being transferred, even though it is far from clear whether appropriate or even effective screening methods were available or even legally permitted (they are currently banned in at least one state in the Australian Federation).