Hospital in Alabama suspends IVF after judge finds stored embryos are children

A recent decision by the Alabama Supreme Court says that frozen embryos are like children. This means that someone could get in trouble for accidentally destroying them. This has caused more debate about reproductive medicine in the US.

The biggest hospital in the southern US state has stopped offering IVF services because they are worried they could get in trouble with the law.

The hospital will keep taking eggs from women’s ovaries. But it said it would stop the next part of the IVF process, when the eggs are joined with sperm before being placed in the uterus.

“We are sad because this will make it harder for our patients to have a baby with IVF,” said the top medical provider in the state.

“But we need to consider whether our patients and our doctors could get in trouble with the law or have to pay penalties for following the usual IVF treatments. ”

Doctors and groups that support people having babies warned that the decision could cause problems for fertility treatments in Alabama and other places.

Conservative groups were happy with the decision. They believe that even the smallest embryo should be protected by law.

Why did this case go to court and what was the court’s decision.

The case comes from a lawsuit filed by three couples because their embryos were lost at a fertility clinic in 2020.

A person went into the room where the baby cells were kept, touched them, and accidentally let them fall. Therefore, the embryos were broken down.

The couples wanted to take legal action against the Center for Reproductive Medicine and the Mobile Infirmary Association for the death of their child, according to the state’s law about the death of a minor. The law protects unborn babies, but does not specifically protect embryos made through IVF.

The court decided that the embryos were not considered a person or child, and the lawsuit for wrongful death could not continue.

The Alabama Supreme Court agreed with the couples and said that frozen embryos are like children.

The law says that it applies to all babies who have died, even if they were still in their mother’s belly.

Agreeing with most people, Chief Justice Tom Parker said that all people have God’s image from even before they are born, and their lives should not be taken away because it would erase God’s glory.