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“Frozen Embryos Are Children,” Alabama Supreme Court Rules

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled on Feb. 16 that frozen embryos are children, and that they can therefore be the subject of a wrongful death suit, the Associated Press reports. The unprecedented decision may terminate the practice of freezing embryos for in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Alabama, critics have noted.

The freezing of embryos is a medical technique employed during In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) cycles or to allow for future family building.The procedure involves removing eggs from the ovaries, fertilizing them and letting them grow for a few days before freezing them. When thawed, the embryo can then be implanted into the original patient or into another patient. The practice is widely used today.

The Alabama case arose after three couples undergoing IVF treatments discovered that the embryos they had left in storage at Mobile Infirmary Medical Center had been accidentally dropped on the floor by another patient and had been lost. The plaintiffs filed suit against their treating hospital and clinic for causing the “wrongful deaths” of their “children.”

Ruling in the matter on Friday, the all-Republican Alabama high court cited in support of its decision an 1872 state law that allowed parents to sue over the death of a minor child. “Unborn children are ‘children’ … without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics,” Justice Jay Mitchell concluded in writing the majority ruling. The frozen embryos had been “killed,” Mitchell wrote.

Dissenting, Justice Greg Cook said the 1872 law did not define “minor child” and that it was a stretch to consider a frozen embryo to be so. “No court — anywhere in the country — has reached the conclusion the main opinion reaches. [The ruling] almost certainly ends the creation of frozen embryos through in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Alabama.”

While the wrongful death suit is being allowed to proceed, the defendant clinic and hospital may ask the court to reconsider its decision, AP reports.