A medical center in Alabama has halted all IVF treatments after a court ruled that the embryos were children.
university Alabama At Birmingham (UAB), an academic medical center, it halted IVF treatments until it could consider the legal ramifications of the decision made by the state Supreme Court.
This ruling was made in a case in which a person wandered into an unlocked storage area at a fertility clinic and dropped several frozen embryos on the floor.
The court determined that failure to secure this storage area violated the state's wrongful death law — which states that an unjustified act or negligence that results in someone's death is a civil crime — because the frozen embryos were considered human beings.
The ruling has left IVF providers and patients unsure how to interpret the law in future cases.
Some said treating the fetus like a child — rather than property — could have broader implications and raise questions about many IVF practices.
“If this became a person now, would we be able to freeze the embryos?” said Barbara Collura, CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association.
“We are saddened that this will impact our patients' attempt to have a child through IVF, but we must evaluate the possibility that our patients and doctors will be criminally prosecuted or face punitive damages for following the standard of care for IVF treatments,” said Hannah Echols, a UAB spokeswoman.
UAB will continue to offer egg retrieval, the process of collecting eggs from one or both ovaries, but will no longer fertilize eggs or develop embryos.
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The Alabama Medical Association on Wednesday called on the state Supreme Court to reconsider or suspend its ruling so residents can continue access to IVF.
“The ruling has already forced UAB, the largest health care system in Alabama, to stop providing IVF services to couples in Alabama,” the association said in a statement. “And others will likely do the same, leaving little or no alternatives for help.” Reproductive.” .
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She added that the decision “will likely result in having fewer children – children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and cousins - as fertility options become limited for those who want to start a family.”
The practice of IVF involves combining sperm and eggs in a laboratory to create embryos, then implanting one or more of those embryos into a person's uterus.
