The first goal of this dissertation is to investigate the status of the fetus in Swedish law. The second goal is to contribute to the debate concerning attitudes toward mankind, attitudes toward the fetus, and the value of human life as these are expressed in our everyday concepts of law. The tbird goal is to contribute to greater uniformity in the future in the laws which touch upon human beings in the early phases of life (the fertilized egg, the blastula and the fetus). The study is based on an analysis of printed official government documents and records, instructions, motions, bills, minutes of the Riksdag, replies to official queries from experts and affected parties, and laws and government studies made prior to the drafting of legislation, such as SOU and Ds. The areas of the law which are analyzed include (i) the Abortion Act, (ii) the Transplant Act, (iii) the Act concerning Measures for Purposes of Research or Treatment Involving Fertilized Human Ova (LBÄ), (iv) the Act on the Treatment of Alcoholics and Drug Abusers (LVM) in certain cases, (v) the Inheritance Code, (vi) the National Registration Act, and (vii) the Burial Legislation. There are divergent views of the fetus in the various laws and statutes. This is partly due to the dissimilar purposes of the different laws, and partly due to the fact that the fetus is seldom or never the actual subject of these laws. The laws have also come into being at different points in time. The result is that the fetus is not regarded in the same way legally and morally in the divergent laws and statutes. In the conclusion the acceptability of these discrepancies is discussed. Special attention is paid to the debate concerning the underlying values. the divergence among them, and the extent to which such differences are acceptable. Finally, a discussion follows about what might be done, which leads into an appeal for an unbiased study of the need for uniform legal protection for the fetus in Swedish law.