Assistant Professor, Yonsei University. D.J.S., Georgetown University Law Center, 2014; M.S.L., Stanford Law School, 2007; M.P.H., Seoul National University, 2007; LL.B., Seoul National University, 2004. This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of The Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2016S1A5A8017475).
Issues Law Med. 2020 Fall;35(2):117-130.
In South Korea, the Bioethics and Safety Act sets a five-year embryo storage limit and does not allow for an extension of the storage period upon embryo creators' requests. No legislative document states the intent of this restrictive law, and no academic paper has assessed whether it is reasonable. In a 2010 decision, the Constitutional Court of Korea declared that this law's restrictions on embryo creators' will is legitimate. The court provided four reasons frequently raised to support such restrictions in other countries: the increased social burden of maintaining frozen embryos, embryos' post-thawing viability, remaining embryos' misuse risks, and similar legislations in other countries. This article challenges this position based on an analysis of the Korean context and technological developments. It finds that, by allowing embryo creators to extend the storage beyond the five-year limit, Korea's social burden-the costs related to infertility treatments and the low birth rate-may be reduced. It also reports that biotechnology advancements have addressed post-thawing viability-related issues; furthermore, embryo misuse risks can be addressed via other regulatory options. Moreover, this article lists other legislation that allow for extensions of the embryo storage period based on the creators' will and these laws' legislative intent. Thus, this article concludes that the Bioethics and Safety Act should be revisited based on Korea's current social context and up-to-date technologies' adaptability.
在韩国，《生物伦理与安全法》规定胚胎的储存期限为五年，且不允许胚胎创造者提出延长储存期的请求。没有任何立法文件表明这项限制性法律的意图，也没有学术论文评估其是否合理。在 2010 年的一项裁决中，韩国宪法法院宣布，该法律对胚胎创造者意愿的限制是合法的。法院提供了其他国家经常提出的四个支持这种限制的理由：维持冷冻胚胎的社会负担增加、胚胎解冻后的存活能力、剩余胚胎的滥用风险，以及其他国家的类似立法。本文基于对韩国背景和技术发展的分析，对这一立场提出了挑战。它发现，通过允许胚胎创造者将储存期延长至五年以上，韩国的社会负担——与不孕治疗和低出生率相关的成本——可能会降低。它还报告说，生物技术的进步解决了与解冻后存活能力相关的问题；此外，胚胎滥用风险可以通过其他监管选择来解决。此外，本文还列出了其他允许根据创造者的意愿延长胚胎储存期的立法，以及这些法律的立法意图。因此，本文得出结论，《生物伦理与安全法》应根据韩国当前的社会背景和最新技术的适应性进行重新审议。
