Chapter 7. The frozen embryo in the light of a jurist : beyond qualification

Abstract

The legal qualification of the embryo does not pose any particular difficulties : this human being is a bodily thing of human nature, devoid of legal personality.
However the freezing affects its humanity : it is no more than a thing made in laboratory, out of time. Stored in liquid nitrogen, it does not die, so storage must be ended.
As long as they respond to a specific parental project, the one for which they were made and kept, the frozen embryos are identified by this given project.
They are unique and not interchangeable. On the other hand, without a parental project, frozen embryos that can be accommodated by any infertile couple or those given to research, become interchangeable gender things.
Although human beings, they are treated as the elements and products of the human body, human things.