Abstract

The paper discusses the issue of cryopreservation of human embryos from the perspective of Polish criminal law. It aims in particular to reconstruct the limits of criminal responsibility for the failure of obligatory cryopreservation of embryos not transferred into the woman’s body as well as for performing such intervention or keeping embryos in a frozen state without legal grounds or against medical standards. The criminal responsibility for the enumerated actions and omissions has two fundamental grounds. The first one is the Article 78 of the Act of 25 June 2015 on Infertility Treatment penalising i.a. the violation of legal conditions for cryopreservation, whereas the second one includes offences against life and health underthe Article 83 of the ITA and the Article 157a para. 1 of the Criminal Code. The detailed scope of criminalisation in the area of cryopreservation of human embryos is, however, difficult to delineate and even quite random due to the serious shortcomings in the legislative technique.

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