Prawo nasciturusa do życia w prawie konstytucyjnym i prawie międzynarodowym

Human life in the prenatal phase enjoys legal protection under the constitutional law in Europe, international law and European Union law. The intensity of this protection varies considerably depending on the adopted solutions in the area of abortion, research on embryos and the selection of embryos in the procedure of artificial insemination. In some legal systems the embryo or foetus is recog- nized as a subject of the right to life equally with a born person, while in other “developing life” is treated as an objective value, which, however, is lower in the hierarchy than the rights of a born citizen. It should be noted that even countries with a very wide access to abortion consider the need to ensure the minimum of legal protection of nasciturus e.g. France, which by ratifying the Oviedo Conven- tion has underwritten the commitment to guarantee respect for the dignity of unborn human beings by on-going scientific research.