this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2024
351 points (98.3% liked)

science

14762 readers
288 users here now

A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.

rule #1: be kind

<--- rules currently under construction, see current pinned post.

2024-11-11

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
m3t00@lemmy.world
Joleee@lemmy.world
laverabe@lemmy.world
DeadPand@midwest.social
351
Embryo loss is integral to IVF. Alabama’s ruling equating embryos with children jeopardizes its practice (www.statnews.com)
submitted 8 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world
42 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] ugh@lemm.ee 14 points 8 months ago

I read some bickering about this amongst conservatives, and the reasoning seems to be:

  1. Conception should occur from sex because of the love between husband, wife, and God or something

  2. Typically, they'll harvest(?) multiple embryos, check if they are viable or have genetic abnormalities, then discard those that aren't viable or will result in major disabilities. To them, this is killing those unviable/unhealthy "babies". Sometimes the couple will freeze multiple embryos as backups, but not need them after a successful pregnancy (or more). Those microscopic globs of cells that they call babies are then "murdered". Their point is that this results in more deaths than lives.

I'm curious what their opinion would be if a woman wanted IVF after 5 miscarriages, was unable to get the treatment, and went on to have 7 more miscarriages, still without having a successful birth. To be real, fundie couples who refuse contraceptives and are hell bent on having a child could go through many more miscarriages than that.