Alabama Court Ruling: What Does This Hold for the Future of IVF?
On February 16, the Alabama Supreme Court issued a ruling that can make quite an impact on the future of IVF practices and clinics in the state of Alabama. An incident causing the destruction of several embryos at a hospital sparked the debate if in vitro embryos are considered children and therefore people.
“…the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies to all unborn children regardless of their location.”
- Alabama Supreme Court
In vitro fertilization also known as the abbreviation “IVF” has been around for a long time serving a multitude of purposes. The procedure entails collecting mature eggs from ovaries followed by their fertilization in a lab through the use of sperm.
IVF treatments are rather expensive and can be a long journey, yet it proves to be the most effective fertility treatment so far. While IVF has become highly associated as a way to become pregnant for women with fertility issues, the procedure is also often performed to check and prevent genetic mutations in embryos.
What started out as a terrible accident quickly resorted to a civil lawsuit initiated by three different couples who were undergoing IVF treatments at the clinic. As a patient wandered into the cryogenic nursery, the individual dropped and destroyed several frozen embryos. Even though the first hearing of this case was dismissed by a trial court, an appeal to the Supreme Court of Alabama granted the couples the ability to continue their lawsuit.
Prior to this court case, the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applied to a fetus in utero (the woman’s womb) as the concept of IVF was not brought into existence yet. However, the protection this law carries now extends to all embryos regardless of the element “in utero”.
The Alabama ruling sent the state into a frenzy with many fertility clinics halting its practices. Clinics are concerned for their practices since they want to prevent any liability they may possibly face with this undetermined state of events.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham shared a statement saying “our patients and our physicians could be prosecuted criminally or face punitive damages for following the standard of care for IVF treatments.” For parents in the midst of trying to conceive children through IVF treatments, panic settled in as they were forced to wait for the legislation that would follow in the state of Alabama.
Source: iStock
In response to the widespread panic and demand for a solution to protect IVF services urging on its vitality to create life, a new law has been put into action. On March 6, approved by both the senate and the majority of the Republican Alabama House, the law states providers and patients of the in vitro process are given civil and criminal immunity.
Nevertheless, the newly passed law still leaves the state with unaddressed questions whereas many call it a “quick fix.” The implications of a frozen embryo considered to be personhood after the ruling contradicts the new law providing fertility clinics protection from criminal liability.
Essentially, embryos in the state of Alabama are now under protection from harm or destruction yet there’s no guarantee an incident such as the one that precipitated the entirety of this situation won’t happen again.