An embryo is one of the earliest stages of development of a multicellular organism. But according to the Supreme Court of Alabama, it is a person, too — an unborn child, entitled to the same legal protections as any minor.

The court ruled on Feb. 16 that a fertility clinic patient who accidentally destroyed other patients’ frozen embryos could be liable in a wrongful death lawsuit, writing in its opinion that “the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location,” and that this includes “unborn children who are located outside of a biological uterus at the time they are killed.”

This has had immediate and profound consequences on the practice of in vitro fertilization in the state, with many fertility clinics already deciding to interrupt their services for fear of legal repercussions, including the University of Alabama at Birmingham, which has paused its IVF treatments, as has Alabama Fertility Services.

But the implications may reach beyond Alabama’s border: 11 other states have fetal personhood laws, and in at least four of them — Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and South Carolina — such laws have already been used to prosecute pregnant women for child endangerment and neglect. Like Alabama, these states could interpret their wrongful death laws as applying to embryos, putting IVF clinics in legally vulnerable situations.

    • Fapper_McFapper@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Yeah, but it’s a wasted potential for life. I propose that all men stop masturbating and all women stop having their periods. This is the only way to preserve the life of the unborn gamete and the unfertilized egg.

      • Olhonestjim@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Every potential combination of sperm and egg is an actual human soul! Save the people whose parents never met!

        /s

        • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          I still remember all my sweethearts from grade school. Just imagine all the babies I could have had if I had just been more openly horny and actually asked all of them for the honor to be their sperm donor 😜.

          I ended up marrying a lovely lovely lady with whom we made several IVF kids, more than 2 but less than 10 to be precise. Each of them has a soul. Unfortunately we did end up regretfully loosing many to periods and miscellaneous miscarriages that I never got to witness or see because she decided to have her own private mourning.

          Should the government tell us how to mourn for lost pregnancies? Frozen embryos? Frozen eggs? Periods? General cum? I cum a lot. I must be fucking crying every day all day long for all that cum. I could have repopulate the entire planet already. Such loss! I hope the government also regulates cum. Maybe we have to say the pledge of alliance twice before or due a climax. If you’re not nice to your partner, they can go to the police and have you arrested for cumming without prayer 🙏. LOL.