A dispute over embryos’ right to life

Dublin (Ireland): A landmark lawsuit has opened that seeks to confirm a frozen embryo's right to life.

It is a touchstone issue in this predominantly Roman Catholic country where the constitution outlaws abortion and commits the state to defend the unborn.

The case before High Court Justice, Brian McGovern pits a 38-year-old woman against her estranged husband, who is refusing to allow her to use the couple's frozen embryos.

The embryos were produced at a Dublin in-vitro fertilisation clinic four years ago.

The couple has not been identified because of Irish privacy laws.

However, the woman's lawyer, Gerard Hogan, said that the case could determine whether Ireland's 1983 constitutional amendment, which proclaimed "the right to life of the unborn and by its laws to defend and vindicate that right,” extends the defense to cold-storage embryos.

Hogan, a Trinity College Dublin law professor and one of Ireland's most eminent constitutional experts, argued that the constitution should be interpreted this way.

He said that the judge should order the IVF clinic to implant the embryos in the woman's womb as "the best way to vindicate the embryo's right to life."

The High Court case is scheduled to last more than a week and involve testimony from medical and scientific experts.

It is expected to be appealed to Ireland's highest court, the Supreme Court because it represents the first test of the Constitution's ill-defined reference to "the unborn."

Legal battles including this one is unusual in Europe, where Ireland is the only country with a written, US-style Constitution.