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The Alabama Supreme Court ruled last week that frozen embryos are legally \u201cchildren\u201d and deserve the same rights as other \u201cunborn children.\u201d<\/p>\n
The case, which originated in 2021, began when a patient at The Center for Reproductive Medicine in Mobile, Alabama, dropped several containers of frozen embryos. <\/p>\n
Three couples whose embryos were destroyed sued the Center, but a court judge dismissed the case as the embryos were not covered under Alabama\u2019s \u201cWrongful Death of a Minor Act.\u201d<\/p>\n
The court ruled at the time that the embryos did not meet the definitions of a \u201cperson,\u201d however the decision last week overturned the lower court and allowed the parents to proceed with a wrongful death lawsuit. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the People of Alabama adopted (the \u2018sanctity of life\u2019 provision of the state constitution), they did not use the term \u2018inviolability,\u2019 with its secular connotations, but rather they chose the term \u2018sanctity,\u2019 with all of its connotations. The Alabama Constitution\u2019s recognition that human life is an endowment from God emphasizes a foundational principle of English common law, which has been expressly incorporated as part of the law of Alabama,\u201d Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo court \u2014 anywhere in the country \u2014 has reached the conclusion the main opinion reaches. And the main opinion\u2019s holding almost certainly ends the creation of frozen embryos through in vitro fertilization (\u201cIVF\u201d) in Alabama,\u201d Justice Greg Cook said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n