{"id":1509562,"date":"2024-02-20T19:22:40","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T19:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=461333"},"modified":"2024-02-20T19:22:40","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T19:22:40","slug":"alabama-court-rules-frozen-embryos-made-by-ivf-are-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/02\/20\/alabama-court-rules-frozen-embryos-made-by-ivf-are-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Alabama Court Rules Frozen Embryos Made by IVF Are \u201cChildren\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n An embryologist prepares some eggs for thawing on Nov. 11, 2014, in Rockville, M.D.<\/span>\n The Washington Post via Getty Images<\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In a ruling<\/u> that reads<\/a> more like a theocrat\u2019s sermon, the Alabama Supreme Court on Friday decided<\/a> that frozen embryos \u2014 those created through in vitro fertilization \u2014 count as \u201cchildren\u201d under the state\u2019s law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court\u2019s decision specifically permits three couples whose frozen embryos were accidentally destroyed in a Mobile, Alabama, reproductive clinic to sue the facility for wrongful death. The potential consequences in the state and beyond are wide-reaching, confirming concerns of reproductive rights activists that, with Roe v. Wade dismantled, the far-right judiciary would strike blows against all aspects of reproductive health care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis Court has long held that unborn children are \u2018children\u2019 for purposes of Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act,\u201d wrote Alabama Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell in his opinion, concluding that \u201cthe Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The couples\u2019 embryos were destroyed when another patient in the hospital tampered with an IVF freezer and dropped a number of trays. In a 7-2 decision, the court ruled that the couples can now sue the hospital for negligence under a wrongful death statute first passed in 1872, when \u201cthe wrongful death of a minor\u201d had certainly not encompassed frozen, single-celled eggs. The ruling reverses an earlier judge\u2019s decision to throw the case out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Alabama ruling threatens the entire IVF industry in the state. It works in one of numerous ways pernicious anti-abortion and anti-trans laws around the country do: taking aim at health care treatments by rendering hospitals\u2019 and doctors\u2019 liability<\/a> insurance unaffordable. In this case, health care providers and clinics, fearing the legal risks of storing frozen embryos endowed with legal personhood, may well end such services or face prohibitive costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Assisted reproduction is already unaffordable for most, and rulings like Alabama\u2019s only risk further entrenching disparities in reproductive care access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Alabama has been a total<\/a> abortion ban state, with no exceptions for rape or incest. Alabama is one of four states to explicitly declare that their constitution does not secure or protect the right to abortion or allow use of public funds for abortion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other states show that it did not need to be this way. After the Dobbs decision, voters in six states \u2014 California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Vermont, and Ohio \u2014 voted in favor of abortion protections in constitutional amendment ballot measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, Alabama\u2019s darker path is playing the awkward role of using anti-abortion zealotry \u2014 the defense of the unborn \u2014 in a way that will likely serve as an obstacle for those who are ready and willing to become parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n