Alabama Supreme Court Rules Embryos Are Children

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled Friday that frozen embryos are “children” and deserve the same legal rights as other “unborn children.”

The case originated in 2021 when a patient at The Center for Reproductive Medicine in Mobile, Alabama, wandered into the area where embryos are stored and dropped several containers.

Three couples whose embryos were destroyed sued the Center, but a circuit court judge dismissed the case because embryos at the time were not covered under Alabama’s “Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.”

In dismissing the case, the trial court ruled that the embryos did not meet the definition of a “person” and, therefore, the three couples could not make any claims, other than breach of contract, since the plaintiffs did not suffer a physical injury.  

Friday’s 7-2 decision overturned the lower court ruling, allowing the parents to proceed with a wrongful death lawsuit. Critics argue the new ruling will likely signal the end of in vitro fertilization in Alabama and lamented the court’s Biblical language in its ruling.

In a concurring opinion, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker wrote: “When the People of Alabama adopted (the ‘sanctity of life’ provision of the state constitution), they did not use the term ‘inviolability,’ with its secular connotations, but rather they chose the term ‘sanctity,’ with all of its connotations. The Alabama Constitution’s recognition that human life is an endowment from God emphasizes a foundational principle of English common law, which has been expressly incorporated as part of the law of Alabama.”

In writing for the dissent, Justice Greg Cook offered: “No court — anywhere in the country — has reached the conclusion the main opinion reaches. And the main opinion’s holding almost certainly ends the creation of frozen embryos through in vitro fertilization (“IVF”) in Alabama.”