The decision of the Supreme Court in the US state of Alabama, on Friday, that frozen embryos are children, and someone can be held responsible for their destruction, sparked a lot of legal, social and medical controversy, amid fears that other states will implement the same decision.
According to the siteAxisus“The American court’s decision came in response to two “unlawful death” cases that were filed against a mobile fertility clinic in 2021, after a patient allegedly broke a refrigerator storing frozen embryos and destroyed some of the embryos.
The court considered that unborn children are children, and that this also applies to frozen embryos, giving fertilized eggs the same protection as children under the “unlawful killing of a minor” law.
Commenting on that ruling, Barb Collura, president and CEO of the National Infertility Association, said the court’s decisions will have “serious consequences” for the 1 in 6 infertile people who need IVF to start a family.
Among the unanswered questions, she said, is how the ruling will affect families who currently have embryos stored at the state’s five fertility clinics.
In a memorandum filed with the court last year, the Alabama Medical Association warned that such rulings would mean increased exposure to wrongful death lawsuits that, at best, would dramatically increase the costs of IVF.
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“More seriously, the increased risk of legal exposure could lead to the closure of fertility clinics in Alabama and the relocation of fertility specialists to other states to practice,” the union added.
In contrast, Leila Rose, president and founder of Live Action, a national anti-abortion organization, praised the court for showing “moral clarity” in its ruling that fetuses deserve the same rights as children.
Rose told the newspaper:Washington PostThe American: “There are children who are created in petri dishes (short cylindrical containers, made of glass or plastic, and equipped with a lid, which biologists use to culture cells), and then they are destroyed at will or are used in experiments.”
She continued: “It is not reasonable to leave humans in the ice, and it is not acceptable to destroy them, as they are not commodities.”
In a related context, Katie O’Connor, director of federal abortion policy at the National Women’s Law Center, said that the court’s decision will immediately disrupt reproductive care in Alabama, because hospitals and doctors will not be aware of what they can and cannot do regarding fertility treatments.
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For her part, Dr. Mamie McLean, who works at one of the largest fertility clinics in the state of Alabama, said that the court’s decision “has no medical basis.”
She continued: “Unfortunately, the issue has turned into a political issue, but in reality it is a medical matter, and it must be discussed on this basis.”
She noted that if the decision is not amended, this may cost women in the state more money, because some doctors may be willing to withdraw a limited number of eggs.
She explained that in a typical artificial insemination cycle, doctors stimulate the ovaries to produce the largest possible number of mature eggs, then those eggs are fertilized in the laboratory, and if the process is successful, the fertilized eggs turn into embryos.
She cautioned that several embryos are often needed to produce a single live birth.
She added: “If two eggs are fertilized instead of 10 eggs, we may not end up obtaining any embryos or we may obtain an unhealthy embryo, and this means asking clients to withdraw more eggs and repeat the process every once in a while until the desired results are achieved.” “It will mean more money.”
MacLean added that she is concerned that insurance companies may refuse to cover these costs, and she is also concerned that it will be difficult to convince more doctors to work in the state.
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2024-02-21 06:02:05
