CELL JOURNAL(Yakhteh), Vol 19, No 2, Jul-Sep (Summer) 2017 314 Original Article Attitudes of Infertile Couples, Fertility Clinic Staf and Researchers toward Personhood of The Human Embryo in Iran Marjaneh Kayssan, M.Sc. 1 , Mahrokh Dolatian, Ph.D. 1, 2 *, Reza Omani Samani, M.D. 3 *, Saman Maroufzadeh, M.Sc. 3 1. Department of Midwifery and Reproductive Health, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2. Medical Ethics and Law Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 3. Department of Epidemiology and Reproductive Health, Reproductive Epidemiology Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR, Tehran, Iran *Corresponding addresses: 1996835119, Department of Midwifery and Reproductive Health, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran P.O.Box: 16635-148, Department of Epidemiology and Reproductive Health, Reproductive Epidemiology Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR, Tehran, Iran Emails: mhdolatian@gmail.com, samani@royaninstitute.org Received: 15/Mar/2015, Accepted: 15/Jul/2016 Abstract Objective: After the introduction of assisted reproductive techniques, human embryos were of- fcially introduced into laboratories and now thousands of them are cryopreserved in such set- tings. Embryonic stem cells and the future application of such cells in the treatment of disease opened the door to further research on human embryos. These developments raise many ethical issues, some of which have religious aspects. The main question is: what is the em- bryo? Should we consider it a human being? Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate attitudes towards the personhood of the embryo. Materials and Methods: In this cross sectional study, 203 infertile patients (n=406), 54 clinic staff and 49 embryo researchers, selected using convenience sampling at the Royan Institute, completed a questionnaire on personhood of human embryo. The questionnaire had been developed following qualitative research and had satisfed face and content validity tests. Results: At the pre-implantation stage the majority of participants in all three groups con- sidered the human embryo as "not a human being". Also, at the post-implantation stage of development, the majority of infertile couples and clinic staff considered the embryo as "not a human being" but, half the researchers (51%) considered the embryo in this stage as a "potential human". Half of the infertile couples considered the human fetus before ensoulment time (19 th week of pregnancy according to the Shiite Islamic scholars) as "not-human being", while more than half of researchers (55.1%) considered it as a "potential human". Conclusion: Ensoulment time is a major and important border for personhood. Most infertile couples and clinic staff consider the human embryo as "not a human being" but majority of all study participants considered the human fetus to be a complete human after ensoulment time. Keywords: Attitude, Personhood, Human Embryo, Ensoulment, Fetus Cell Journal (Yakhteh), Vol 19, No 2, Jul- Sep (Summer) 2017, Pages: 314- 323 Citation: Kayssan M, Dolatian M, Omani Samani R, Maroufzadeh S. Attitudes of infertile couples, fertility clinic staff and researchers toward personhood of the human embryo in Iran. Cell J. 2017; 19(2): 314-323. doi: 10.22074/ cellj.2016.4989. Introduction The widespread use of assisted reproductive technology (ART) worldwide has led to the birth of millions of children; for instance 1-3% of all births in the United States of America (USA) and Europe (1). According to a Center for Disease Control and Prevention report for 2011, the number of ART cycles in the USA increased from 115,392 cycles in 2002 to 151,923 cycles in 2011 and the number of babies born using ART increased by 34% (2). According to Nachtigall et al. (3), by 2005 about 400,000 blastocysts had been stored in the freezers of clinics in United States. In Japan, about 61,000 frozen embryos are in storage, among which, 15% have no decision