Frozen embryos are children and have legal personhood—that is the new ruling of the Supreme Court in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is the first time in history that a U.S. court has protected life that soon following conception.
The 8-1 Supreme Court ruling is the result of a lawsuit from parents whose frozen embryos from the in vitro fertilization process had been accidentally destroyed. The ruling reads:
…even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory.
Alabama's ruling does not directly outlaw in vitro fertilization in the state but it does impact it. Some IVF services in the state have already been halted due to legal concerns.
The National Embryo Donation Center says there could be up to 1 million frozen embryos in storage in the United States alone. And this new ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court says each one of these is a baby.
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