A recent ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court declared that frozen embryos are to be
considered people. The ruling comes from a case in which a hospital destroyed several couples’s
frozen embryos, which resulted in them suing the hospital in a wrongful death lawsuit. The lower
courts in Alabama rejected the suit, however, the Alabama Supreme Court sided with the
couples. As a result, most facilities in Alabama that provide invitro fertilization, commonly
known as IVF, shut down nearly overnight, leaving many families that had been in the process
abandoned and without answers. The hospitals and clinics are afraid to provide services because
embryos are very fragile and are lost in routine procedures often. Those affected cannot move
their embryos out of the state because transportation companies fear liability.
This ruling has many lawmakers nationwide scrambling, on both state and federal levels,
to try and protect IVF. This ruling surprised many as the case did not have much traction before
it reached the Alabama Supreme Court. The Alabama Supreme Court is made up of nine justices,
the opinion was written by Tom Parker, and the majority spends a great deal of time defining the
word “child” referring to many cases to support their argument including Dobbs, the case that
overturned Roe v Wade. Defining life to begin at the moment of fertilization means that embryos,
regardless of their location, are people with rights and interests protected by the law. The opinion
refers to the Bible, a clear violation of the separation between church and state, citing the book of
Genesis directly three times as well as other books in the Bible. The Court also refers to a range
of theological writings by authors such as Thomas Aquinas, who lived from 1225 to 1274, and
John Calvin, who lived from 1509 to 1564.
One of the dissenting Justices, Justice Cook, pointed out that this ruling would have
“disastrous consequences” for Alabama’s IVF industry. In which the Justice seems to be correct.
The IVF industry deals with a complex multi-step process, and it is common practice to destroy
embryos that have not been used by a couple when they are done with the process and decide not
to have any more children. IVF laws and laws regarding frozen embryos vary throughout the
nation. Many states have also had to consider what to do with frozen embryos in the divorce
process. It is usually considered standard that frozen embryos be destroyed upon divorce,
however, with this ruling, many procedures and legal standards could change due to a new
definition of personhood that will most likely not remain in just the state of Alabama.