La semántica del embrión en los documentos normativos

A semantic analysis of legal texts about the human embryo shows the goals which the rules aim to achieve, and if the adopted linguistic qualification is functional for reaching these goals. The research, which analyses rules belonging to several national and international systems, detects four different semantic solutions, going from the most pragmatic ones, that do not define the human embryo and do not assign a specific legal status, to those, at the other extreme, in which there is the will to give full value to the embryo, in order to equate it with subjects possessing the capacity to have rights. Looking at the consequences of these choices, the research points out that sometimes the “strong” qualifications are not the most appropriate for reaching the goals aimed at, above all due to the persistent necessity to balance the protection of the embryo against other similarly-protected values.