It's Time for a Serious Look at the Ethics of the IVF Industry

The Supreme Court of Alabama recently issued a ruling that frozen embryos are considered children under Alabama state law. Therefore, in-vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics may be liable for wrongful death claims or other damages if those embryos are accidentally destroyed.

The sole dissenting justice opined, "the main opinion's holding almost certainly ends the creation of frozen embryos through [IVF] in Alabama." IVF practitioners and fertility industry lobbyists responded similarly: instead of reassurances that frozen embryos would be carefully guarded and protected from accidental destruction, some—like the University of Alabama at Birmingham health system—paused their IVF services while they assess potential liability. Critics of the ruling scoff at the notion that an embryo would be considered a child, with some dismissing the embryo as merely a "clump of cells," rather than a whole and genetically distinct human being in his or her earliest stage of development.