Mixed reactions but most agree legislation is needed

Reaction: The High Court's decision in the embryos case has drawn a mixed response, although there was agreement on the need for further legislation in the area.

Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin expressed serious concerns about the judgment, saying it appeared to cast doubt on the level of protection which the Constitution afforded to human life at its earliest stages.

He expressed the hope that this issue would receive "full consideration" in any eventual appeal to the Supreme Court and that the protection of human life at all stages of its development would be vindicated.

Dr Martin said it was the clear teaching of the Catholic Church that "human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his or her existence, a human being must be recognised as having the rights of a person."

The Sims Clinic, which was at the centre of this case, expressed satisfaction at Mr Justice McGovern's ruling. "If the court had decided we couldn't freeze embryos, it would have caused mayhem," said clinic director Dr Tony Walsh. "Our pregnancy rates would have plummeted and we would have seen a massive increase in multiple births."

He said the decision was in line with majority thinking in the medical profession and would help doctors in their work, "but the sooner we get legislation in this area the better. We need a governing body that will protect everyone."

The Pro-Life Campaign said it was disappointed and called for legislation to protect the embryo. Its spokesman Dr Berry Kiely said there was "no doubt" the human embryo was alive and unborn.

"The embryo is not potential human life - it is human life with potential, albeit fragile and dependent. The suggestion that an embryo should only enjoy protection rights when implanted in a woman's womb is arbitrary and ignores the fact that each of us began life as a human embryo."

A lack of clarity on the right to life undermined the basis for other cherished rights, he said.

"There is nothing to stop such legislation being brought forward. It will, however, require political leadership. Even countries that permit abortion, like Italy and Germany, have laws protecting the human embryo, for example, from destructive experimentation."

Expressing her dismay, MEP Kathy Sinnott claimed the decision was "the first step Ireland takes on the slippery slope to denying a right to life to a class of human beings". It was disingenuous and tragic for the court to say it could not know when human life began.

However, Labour said the judgment brought clarity. Health spokeswoman Liz McManus called on the Government to establish a regulatory IVF authority and to provide a legal definition of the unborn. "It's up to the Government to produce the legislation in licensing and regulating fertility clinics that they promised. There are no excuses for further delay. At the moment there's a huge gap in the legislation."

The decision also showed the pitfalls of forcing complex issues into the Constitution, she added.