The legal issues in defining the domain of legal protection of nondum conceptus

• Main Author: Simić Jelena
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Comparative Law, Belgrade 2018-01-01
• Series: Strani pravni život
• Subjects: legal capacity; nasciturus; nondum conceptus; right to life; conception; human dignity
• Online Access: https://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0039-2138/2018/0039-21381803025S.pdf
• ISSN: 0039-2138; 2620-1127

Legal science and practice has long been interested in the protection of an unborn life, both the one conceived in vivo, naturally, and the one conceived in vitro, by means of artificial insemination. Due to the rapid development of biomedical technology, we are becoming increasingly familiar with risk factors for a child's existence that could leave it with physical and psychological consequences, such as serious genetic diseases or infectious diseases that a mother could transfer to her child through her blood at the very moment of conception. Since such risk factors can be prevented only before conception, the only way to preclude potential damage is to consider the child's interests before it is conceived. That is why it is important to establish the status of an unconceived person, nondum conceptus. Even though it exists as one of three legally recognized stages in relation to the occurrence of a person's legal capacity, there are numerous dilemmas about what this subject actually represents, its characteristics and how it functions within the law. The author concludes that the status of nondum conceptus requires analysis beyond the existing limits of the traditional comprehension of natural persons' legal capacity and that it also calls for defining new concepts and constructs for subjects such as unconceived humans.