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Kayssan M, Dolatian M, Omani Samani R, et al. Attitudes of Infertile Couples, Fertility Clinic Staff and Researchers toward Personhood of The Human Embryo in Iran. Cell J. 2017;19(2):314-323doi: 10.22074/cellj.2016.4989.
Kayssan, M., Dolatian, M., Omani Samani, R., & Maroufizadeh, S. (2017). Attitudes of Infertile Couples, Fertility Clinic Staff and Researchers toward Personhood of The Human Embryo in Iran. Cell journal, 19(2), 314-323. https://doi.org/10.22074/cellj.2016.4989
Kayssan, Marjaneh, et al. "Attitudes of Infertile Couples, Fertility Clinic Staff and Researchers toward Personhood of The Human Embryo in Iran." Cell journal vol. 19,2 (2017): 314-323. doi: https://doi.org/10.22074/cellj.2016.4989
Kayssan M, Dolatian M, Omani Samani R, Maroufizadeh S. Attitudes of Infertile Couples, Fertility Clinic Staff and Researchers toward Personhood of The Human Embryo in Iran. Cell J. 2017 Jul-Sep;19(2):314-323. doi: 10.22074/cellj.2016.4989. Epub 2017 Feb 22. PMID: 28670524; PMCID: PMC5412790.
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Cell J. 2017 Jul-Sep;19(2):314-323. doi: 10.22074/cellj.2016.4989. Epub 2017 Feb 22.

Attitudes of Infertile Couples, Fertility Clinic Staff and Researchers toward Personhood of The Human Embryo in Iran.

Cell journal

Marjaneh Kayssan, Mahrokh Dolatian, Reza Omani Samani, Saman Maroufizadeh

Affiliations

  1. Department of Midwifery and Reproductive Health, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
  2. Medical Ethics and Law Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
  3. Department of Epidemiology and Reproductive Health, Reproductive Epidemiology Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.

PMID: 28670524 PMCID: PMC5412790 DOI: 10.22074/cellj.2016.4989

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: After the introduction of assisted reproductive techniques, human embryos were officially introduced into laboratories and now thousands of them are cryopreserved in such settings. Embryonic stem cells and the future application of such cells in the treatment of disease opened the door to further research on human embryos. These developments raise many ethical issues, some of which have religious aspects. The main question is: what is the embryo? Should we consider it a human being? Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate attitudes towards the personhood of the embryo.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this cross sectional study, 203 infertile patients (n=406), 54 clinic staff and 49 embryo researchers, selected using convenience sampling at the Royan Institute, completed a questionnaire on personhood of human embryo. The questionnaire had been developed following qualitative research and had satisfied face and content validity tests.

RESULTS: At the pre-implantation stage the majority of participants in all three groups considered the human embryo as "not a human being". Also, at the post-implantation stage of development, the majority of infertile couples and clinic staff considered the embryo as "not a human being" but, half the researchers (51%) considered the embryo in this stage as a "potential human". Half of the infertile couples considered the human fetus before ensoulment time (19

CONCLUSION: Ensoulment time is a major and important border for personhood. Most infertile couples and clinic staff consider the human embryo as "not a human being" but majority of all study participants considered the human fetus to be a complete human after ensoulment time.

Keywords: Attitude; Ensoulment; Fetus; Human Embryo; Personhood

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