Disputes over frozen embryos represent a particularly problematic case, legally and ethically, due to the ambiguity of their moral and legal status and the potential rights-claims which can be made with regard to them. Recent work has contextualised frozen embryos as liminal and suggested a contextual approach to their legal classification. By appeal to personal property law, with a lens provided by Roman law doctrines, and reproductive bioethics, we argue that frozen embryos may be subjects of property rights, providing a more stable framework for dispute resolution. To illustrate how a property approach would work, we reconsider the facts of the influential Evans case and argue that if a proprietary rather than promissory estoppel claim had been pursued, the reverse outcome may have been reached, to the benefit of women who are disproportionately harmed in these scenarios.

中文翻译：

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冷冻胚胎纠纷产权处理的法律与伦理

由于冷冻胚胎的道德和法律地位以及可能针对其提出的潜在权利主张的模糊性，有关冷冻胚胎的争议在法律和伦理上都是一个特别有问题的案件。最近的工作将冷冻胚胎视为阈限，并提出了对其法律分类的情境方法。通过诉诸个人财产法，并以罗马法学说和生殖生物伦理学为视角，我们认为冷冻胚胎可能是财产权的主体，为争议解决提供了更稳定的框架。为了说明财产方法如何运作，我们重新考虑有影响力的事实埃文斯并认为，如果寻求专有而非承诺禁止反言索赔，则可能会达到相反的结果，这对在这些情况下受到不成比例伤害的妇女有利。