[Right and ethics in reproductive medicine--medical and ethical aspects]

Legality and ethics in reproductive medicine are interdependent. Whether ethics degenerates into an ethics of convenience and adaptation, or into an ethics that always comes too late, depends on each doctor and researcher. Our medical care requires legal guidelines. There is not only a responsibility for research, but also one for engaging in research. This position is presented in four sections: on reproductive medicine, the moral status of the embryo, the research on spare embryos and in a section on reproductive medicine in Europe.