Algunas consideraciones en torno a la figura del “curator ventris” en derecho romano y en el derecho actual

Zusammenfassung

As noted in the sources, the Roman Law met with meticulousness the protection of the conceived and unborn baby (nasciturus), granting protection in the legal order through the figure of the curator ventris. In this way, since the embryo is in the uterus, it has certain rights, as if it were considered as a person (and, therefore, a subject of rights). The curator ventris – as representative of the Roman people – was in charge of looking after his interests, starting with the right to be born; for which it should, and could, adopt all kinds of procedures and measures designed to safeguard it. This figure was projected, with different approaches and denominations, in numerous Civil Codes, especially from romanistic roots, in which at present it maintains its validity. In the present work, we will make an approach to the protection and defence mechanisms that the embryo had in the Roman legal order and to those it has in the current regulation, through what we could call a “curator ventris” adapted to the XXI Century; without taking into account the modern techniques of insemination that can give rise to such different states as for example the freezing of embryos and pronuclear oocytes (cells with both nuclei, the one of the ovum and the spermatozoon, but still without genetic conjunction), which will not be here object of study.