Kayssan Marjaneh, Dolatian Mahrokh, Omani Samani Reza, Maroufizadeh Saman
Department of Midwifery and Reproductive Health, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Medical Ethics and Law Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Cell J. 2017 Jul-Sep;19(2):314-323. doi: 10.22074/cellj.2016.4989. Epub 2017 Feb 22.
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.
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.
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 week of pregnancy according to the Shiite Islamic scholars) as "not-human being", while more than half of researchers (55.1%) considered it as a "potential human".
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.
随着辅助生殖技术的引入，人类胚胎被正式引入实验室，如今已有数千枚胚胎被冷冻保存在此类环境中。胚胎干细胞以及此类细胞在疾病治疗中的未来应用为进一步研究人类胚胎打开了大门。这些进展引发了许多伦理问题，其中一些具有宗教层面。主要问题是：胚胎是什么？我们应将其视为人吗？因此，本研究的目的是调查对胚胎人格的态度。
在这项横断面研究中，通过便利抽样在罗扬研究所选取了203名不孕患者（n = 406）、54名诊所工作人员和49名胚胎研究人员，他们完成了一份关于人类胚胎人格的问卷。该问卷是在定性研究后制定的，并通过了表面效度和内容效度测试。
在植入前阶段，所有三组中的大多数参与者都认为人类胚胎“不是人”。此外，在发育的植入后阶段，大多数不孕夫妇和诊所工作人员认为胚胎“不是人”，但一半的研究人员（51%）认为此阶段的胚胎是“潜在的人”。一半的不孕夫妇认为在灵魂赋予时间之前（根据什叶派伊斯兰学者的说法，怀孕19周）的人类胎儿“不是人”，而超过一半的研究人员（55.1%）认为它是“潜在的人”。
灵魂赋予时间是人格的一个主要且重要的界限。大多数不孕夫妇和诊所工作人员认为人类胚胎“不是人”，但所有研究参与者中的大多数认为人类胎儿在灵魂赋予时间之后是完整的人。
