Legal conceptions: regulating gametes and gamete donation.

The growing scope of gamete donation and the manipulation of gametes makes it essential to develop a coherent theory of the nature of gametes and the claims which may be made in relation to them. The nature of gametes is ambiguous, they blur the distinctions between persons and property, but the current legal framework which governs gamete donation and manipulation fails to address their status. This leaves unanswered fundamentally important questions about control of processes involving gametes and rights to use or control the gametes themselves and the information which they represent. These are claims which are rooted in the concept of property. A property based analysis highlights the themes of autonomy, personhood and control which lie at the heart of the claims made in relation to gametes and an account based on the notion of property for personhood offers a more coherent justification for recognising claims in gametes and mediating disputes. This perspective exposes the inadequacies and inconsistencies of the legal construction of gametes and the legal regulation of gamete donation. The present legal framework has not sought to develop a coherent construction of gametes, but to constrain the practices of the assisted reproductive technologies (including gamete donation) within a framework which is presented as least damaging to the traditional ideologies of the creation of the family.