March 28, 2024
By Gabriel Campos
Staff Writer
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled on Feb. 16 that frozen embryos are legally human beings. This caused confusion over the legality of certain aspects of IVF procedures leading to the temporary shutdown of the state’s largest center for IVF procedures.
This ruling came after three families sued under Alabama’s “wrongful death of a minor” law due to the embryos at an IVF clinic being mishandled and destroyed. The families won this case, meaning that embryos are legally people in the state of Alabama.
To understand this ruling, one must understand what in vitro fertilization is. IVF is a process in which a doctor collects mature eggs from a patient and then these eggs are mixed with sperm donated from a partner of the patient or a donor. The eggs and sperm are stored together with the chance of fertilization taking place. If fertilization of these eggs occurs, an embryo has successfully been created.
History teacher Ms. Schiraldi has personal experience with IVF because her daughter was born through the process.
“She was conceived in a petri dish,” Schiraldi said. “It was really wonderful. They put three embryos back, and I was pregnant with a little girl…. I wanted a baby in the worst way, and I would do anything such as this to conceive my child.”
Schiraldi said whether embryos should be considered alive is a matter of opinion.
“When [does] an embryo become a fetus? At what stage? That’s really what the question is and different states have different opinions. I don’t know if any state should have opinions on that, and that’s just my personal opinion,” Schiraldi said.
During or after the IVF process, embryos are often discarded for a variety of reasons. The most common reasons doctors discard embryos is because the embryo will not lead to a pregnancy, the embryo is likely to have chromosomal abnormalities or because the patient has decided they are done building their family. Since the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the destruction of embryos counts as the death of a minor, IVF clinics briefly paused IVF procedures in fear of prosecution.
The Alabama state legislature ended up passing a bill two weeks later that gave civil and criminal immunity to providers and recipients of IVF treatments. During these two weeks, lawmakers in New Jersey and New York introduced legislation clarifying that embryos outside a body are not a human life.
“Today’s society has been fighting so hard for human rights, yet still things like this set us back so many years.”
Alabama Rep. Chris England said the immunity bill passed is a temporary solution that still leaves IVF a legal minefield in Alabama.
The New York IVF bill, introduced by Republican Sen. Jack Martins, declared embryos outside the body not a human being and would be added to New York’s Public Health law after being considered by the Senate Health Committee. This also comes at the same time an act is being introduced on the federal level by Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild to protect access to IVF procedures. This is known as the Access to Family Building Act which seeks to establish a statutory right to access IVF and would ensure that no hopeful parent or doctor would be punished for seeking such treatments.
Advanced Placement U.S. Government and Politics teacher Mr. Ricciardi said the Alabama ruling does not necessarily create a legal precedent for IVF procedures.
“This was decided in the state courts. The issue at hand is a state issue, so it will be up to each state to make their own decisions on the matter if they were to be presented to them,” Ricciardi said.
He said for the case to reach the Supreme Court, any party involved in the original case would have to file a writ of certiorari. A writ of certiorari is a written record from the case that was heard in the lower court, in this case the Alabama Supreme Court.
“On Wednesdays and Fridays, the SCOTUS–Supreme Court of the United States–gathers to read the writs of certiorari they have received. If four of the nine judges vote in favor of accepting the case, they will then take it on the federal level. This rarely happens. Only about 1% of cases make it this far,” Ricciardi said.
While Alabama has decided that those seeking and providing IVF treatment are safe from criminal charges, it is still concerning for women across the country who fear IVF treatment could lead to prosecution.
Freshman Serenity Mendoza said she was terrified to hear about the initial ruling that embryos are legally people and that IVF clinics had shut down as a result.
“Today’s society has been fighting so hard for human rights, yet still things like this set us back so many years,” Mendoza said. “Women being completely in control of their bodies is still a foreign concept in our society.”
Mendoza said teenagers in New Jersey should care about reproductive rights in Alabama.
“Although New Jersey has more flexible reproductive health laws, it is still important to know what is happening around us. Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to human rights,” said Mendoza.
