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Hum. Reprod. Advance Access published online on December 18, 2006
Human Reproduction, doi:10.1093/humrep/del467
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
The online version of this article has been published under an open access model. Users are entitled to use, reproduce, disseminate, or display the open access version of this article for non-commercial purposes provided that: the original authorship is properly and fully attributed: the Journal and Oxford University Press are attributed as the original place of publication with the correct citation details given: if an article is subsequently reproduced or disseminated not in its entirety but only in part or as a derivative word this must be clearly indicated. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

New Debate

Human embryo: a biological definition

J.K. Findlay1,2, M.L. Gear1, P.J. Illingworth3, S.M. Junk1,4, G. Kay5, A.H. Mackerras1, A. Pope6, H.S. Rothenfluh1,8 and L. Wilton7

1 National Health and Medical Research Council, Canberra 2 Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research, Clayton, Victoria 3 IVF Australia Western Sydney, Westmead, New South Wales 4 Fertility Specialists of Western Australia, Bethesda Hospital, Claremont, Western Australia 5 Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Queensland 6 Monash IVF, Clayton, Victoria 7 Genetic and Molecular Research, Melbourne IVF, East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

8 To whom correspondence should be addressed at: National Health and Medical Research Council, GPO Box 1421, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. E-mail: harry.rothenfluh{at}nhmrc.gov.au

This paper defines a human embryo from a biological standpoint that takes into account emerging technologies in reproductive science. The paper does not consider legal, moral, religious or social views. As the definition of a human embryo must reflect the multifactorial processes of development, an approach has been adopted which combines recognition of observed events with potential for further development. This acknowledges that fertilization and development are not static processes, and as such embryo status can only be defined by observation of specific markers. The following biological definition of ‘human embryo’ is proposed.

A human embryo is a discrete entity that has arisen from either:

  1. the first mitotic division when fertilization of a human oocyte by a human sperm is complete or
  2. any other process that initiates organized development of a biological entity with a human nuclear genome or altered human nuclear genome that has the potential to develop up to, or beyond, the stage at which the primitive streak appears,
and has not yet reached 8 weeks of development since the first mitotic division.

Key words: definition/human embryo/primitive streak/syngamy


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