Alabama Ruled IVF Frozen Embryos Are People: What This Means Post-Roe_健康

Skyscrapers are seen along a river in Alabama.

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos conceived via IVF are considered “children” under the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.
The ruling reverses a decision by a lower court that dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit involving three couples undergoing fertility treatments.
The Court’s ruling could have serious ethical consequences for fertility patients in Alabama, which has a total abortion ban.
Anti-abortion activists and health experts have warned about the implications for fertility patients post-Roe.

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled Friday that frozen embryos conceived via in vitro fertilization (IVF) could be considered people potentially complicating access to IVF treatment in the state in the future.

The decision could have major implications for people undergoing IVF treatments in Alabama, where abortions are virtually completely banned.

The February 16 ruling reversed Mobile County Circuit Court Judge Jill Parrish’s decision to dismiss a “wrongful death” lawsuit between an Alabama fertility clinic and hospital and three couples undergoing fertility treatments.

“Man’s creation in God’s image is the basis of the general prohibition on the intentional taking of human life,” wrote Associate Justice Jay Mitchell, quoting a passage from Genesis.

“Therefore to kill man is to deface God’s image, and so injury is not only done to man, but also to God… Finally, the doctrine of the sanctity of life is rooted in the Sixth Commandment: “You shall not murder,” the Justice continued.

In a statement to Healthline Kelly Baden, the Vice President for Public Policy at the Guttmacher Institute, called the ruling “radical.”

“The Alabama ruling that embryos have the same legal rights as a person shows that our fundamental rights and bodily autonomy have been upended by the overturning of ,” Baden said. “This radical concept of personhood has long been championed by the anti-abortion movement and is now one step closer to becoming reality. The potential impacts are vast—your ability to build a family, continue a healthy pregnancy, or choose abortion are all connected; judicial and legislative attacks on one impact all.”

Alabama court says, “all unborn children are children”

The Alabama Supreme Court ruling will allow the couples — James LePage and Emily LePage, William Tripp Fonde and Caroline Fonde, and Felicia Burdick-Aysenne and Scott Aysenne — to sue the Center for Reproductive Medicine and the Mobile Infirmary Association for the death of their embryos under Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act and seek damages for the loss of their frozen embryos.

The couples’ embryos were accidentally destroyed after a hospital patient wandered into the cryonursery where they were being preserved. The patient removed the embryos from the freezer and dropped them on the floor after they freeze-burned their hand, according to the ruling.

“The central question presented in these consolidated appeals, which involve the death of embryos kept in a cryogenic nursery, is whether the Act contains an unwritten exception to that rule for extrauterine children — that is, unborn children who are located outside of a biological uterus at the time they are killed,” the Alabama justice wrote.

“Under existing black-letter law, the answer to that question is no: the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.”

现行规则a布特的胚胎

接受体外受精的患者可能会产生多个可存活的胚胎，这取决于有多少卵子与精子成功受精。可存活的胚胎被冷冻，直到患者接受植入。

患者只需要一次成功的胚胎移植就能怀孕，但可以选择冷冻任何剩余的胚胎以备以后怀孕。

患者对自己的胚胎有医疗自主权，这意味着他们有权决定是否继续储存胚胎、丢弃胚胎或将其捐赠给研究。

The Medical Association of the State of Alabama recently warned about the consequences for fertility treatments that could result if the state’s wrongful death statute was upheld in the lawsuit.

该医疗集团在一份简报中表示:“阿拉巴马州试管婴儿治疗的潜在有害影响不容小觑。”

“上诉人所主张的过失死亡责任的增加，最多只能大幅增加与试管婴儿相关的费用。更不祥的是，法律暴露的风险增加可能导致阿拉巴马州的生育诊所关闭，生育专家转移到其他州从事生育医学，”该组织写道。

保护生育患者的权利

阿拉巴马州几乎全面的堕胎禁令在美国最高法院于2022年6月推翻后生效。

如果其他严格禁止堕胎的州效仿，宣布胚胎是合法的人，这可能会对不孕患者和他们的低温储存胚胎产生伦理影响。

支持堕胎的倡导者和健康专家对生育治疗和冷冻胚胎的潜在影响表示担忧，因为那些反对堕胎的人说生命从受孕开始。

巴登说，反堕胎组织将继续努力限制生育权利。

巴登说:“我们已经看到，推翻罗伊案并不是反堕胎运动及其在立法机构和法院的盟友的最终目标。”“现在，毁灭性的后果变得越来越清晰，并触及我们生殖生活的各个方面——是否以及如何使用体外受精怀孕，是否可以使用激素避孕来防止怀孕，是否可以在一个对堕胎权充满敌意的州面临产科并发症时继续怀孕，以及他们是否可以选择堕胎。”

今年1月，伊利诺伊州民主党参议员塔米·达克沃斯(Tammy Duckworth)和宾夕法尼亚州民主党众议员苏珊·怀尔德(Susan Wild)提出了《2024年家庭建设法案》(Access to Family Building Act)，以帮助保护不孕患者和医生的法定权利。