The protection of human life has long been regarded as a supreme value in our legal system, recently underlined in Article 2 of the Human Rights Act. Notwithstanding the grave erosion of the right to life through laws on abortion and embryo research, the passing of the Human Rights Act brings with it the possibility that the courts as well as the legislature will in future have to consider such profound moral questions anew. The implementation of The European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights again raises the question of who is, and who ought to be, protected by such a charter. Lawyers concerned to promote and defend a genuine human rights culture will have opportunities through case law to explore and defend the foundational right to life, which is the basis of all other rights. It is a new human life - the very first stage in the life of a particular human individual such as yourself.
Most human beings come into the world through sexual reproduction.
The spermatozoon fertilizes the ovum, and a new living being is conceived - a human being in embryo. In the case of identical twins, they come into being by a second way-cell division, either symmetrically or asymmetrically, from an existing embryo. Human cloning is yet another way in which human beings may be generated, one which raises profound and disturbing ethical questions of its own. An embryo is a unified dynamic, self-directed whole, and not an accidental collection of cells. Embryos can be counted and distinguished, collected, stored and tested.