The Alabama Supreme Court’s recent 7-2 decision that a frozen embryo is a “child” under the state’s wrongful-death statute demonstrates once again that judges have to use the right method to make the right decisions.
Keeping this in mind prevents getting distracted by the politics and hysterics that often accompany decisions on such volatile issues.
In this case, three married couples used in vitro fertilization to conceive children. Some of the embryos were implanted and resulted in the birth of healthy babies. Other embryos were preserved in a cryogenic nursery located in the same building as the local hospital.
In December 2020, a hospital patient entered the nursery and removed several embryos. The patient accidentally dropped the embryos because the extremely cold containers freeze-burned the patient’s hands. The embryos were destroyed when they were…
