Alabama Rules Frozen Embryos Are Children

An Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling that frozen embryos in test tubes should be considered children has sent shock waves through the world of reproductive medicine, casting doubt over fertility care for would-be parents in the state and raising complex legal questions with implications extending far beyond Alabama.

The judges issued the ruling on Friday in appeals cases brought by couples whose embryos were destroyed in 2020, when a hospital patient removed frozen embryos from tanks of liquid nitrogen in Mobile and dropped them on the floor.

Referencing antiabortion language in the state constitution, the judges’ majority opinion said that an 1872 statute allowing parents to sue over the wrongful death of a minor child applies to “unborn children,” with no exception for “extrauterine children.”

“Even before birth, all human beings have the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory,” Chief Justice Tom Parker wrote in a concurring opinion.

Couples in the midst of grueling and costly infertility treatments in Alabama said they were overwhelmed with questions and concerns, and some said they feared their providers would be forced to close their clinics.

“The embryos to me are our best chance at having children, and we are extremely hopeful,” Ms. Legerski said. “But having three embryos in the freezer is not the same to me as having one that implants and become a pregnancy, and it’s not the same as having a child.

“We have three embryos. We don’t have three children.”

Reproductive medicine scientists also blasted the ruling, saying it was a “medically and scientifically unfounded decision.”

“The court held that a fertilized frozen egg in a fertility clinic freezer should be treated as the legal equivalent of an existent child or a fetus gestating in a womb,” said Dr. Paula Amato, the president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

“Science and everyday common sense tell us they are not,” she said. Even in the natural world, she added, several eggs are often fertilized before one successfully implants in the uterus and results in a pregnancy.