A bowl of frozen embryos. — © AFP
“Frozen embryos are also children.” The Supreme Court in the conservative American state of Alabama has reached this striking decision. The ruling has far-reaching consequences, because anyone who destroys such a frozen embryo can be held liable for ‘wrongful death’.
The ruling in Alabama is the result of two lawsuits filed by three parent couples. The three couples were in an IVF process and had chosen to have the embryos that were not immediately used in in vitro fertilization frozen in the fertility clinic. In 2020, an unauthorized patient gained access to the freezer containing the unused embryos “through an unsecured entrance”. He took the embryos out of the freezer, but burned his hand in the frigid temperature, causing the embryos to fall to the floor and be destroyed.
The parents filed a wrongful death suit, but the judge ruled that neither the man nor the fertility clinic could be guilty of wrongful death because frozen embryos do not fall within the definition of a “person” or “child.” On Friday, however, the Alabama Supreme Court overruled the lower court and ruled that “ectopic children” – or unborn children “who are outside a biological uterus at the time they are killed” – are also children, and therefore subject to the law. the wrongful death of a minor. “The law against the unlawful killing of a minor applies to all unborn children regardless of their location,” Judge Jay Mitchell said, citing an 1872 law.
Great concern
Even though last Friday’s ruling does not ban in vitro fertilization, it immediately raises major concerns about the possible impact on fertility treatments and the freezing of embryos, which were previously considered by the courts as property and not as persons.
The Alabama Supreme Court. — © AP
After all, with IVF treatment the aim is to create as many high-quality embryos as possible to increase the chance of pregnancy. High-quality embryos that are not used immediately can be frozen until a later time. However, once the parent couple’s desire to have children is completely fulfilled, the remaining embryos are destroyed or donated. The Supreme Court’s ruling now calls that practice into question in Alabama.
“This statement states that a fertilized egg, a clump of cells, is a person. It really calls into question the practice of IVF,” Barbara Collura of Resolve, a support organization for people with fertility problems, told the AP. “This is a terrifying development for anyone who needs IVF.”
According to Sean Tipton of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, at least one fertility clinic in Alabama has already paused its IVF treatments. After all, clinics are increasingly afraid of being held responsible for destroying embryos and therefore ‘unlawfully killing minors’.
It is expected that ‘pro life’ organizations in other American states will try to use the Alabama ruling as a precedent. This has already happened in Florida, where Liberty Counsel, a Christian organization that fights for “the sanctity of human life and the family”, is campaigning for the recognition of frozen embryos as ‘human beings’.