Wednesday, February 21, 2024

More on the consequences of the Alabama case holding that embryos are "children" for purposes of a wrongful death case

 Yesterday I posted a comment about a recent case in Alabama holding that plaintiffs had a valid cause of action for wrongful death based on the accidental destruction of frozen embryos.  I updated that post soon after I posted it, so if you read it immediately after it was picked up in your news aggregator you may want to go back to read it again because I added a quote from an article by someone else that had some good analysis.

The other part of the equation is the discussion of the possible consequences of the decision for issues outside of the litigation and outside of tort law in general.  That discussion picked up quite a bit today in the news.  Some of those consequences are already coming true:  The University of Alabama has terminated providing IVF care!  The University Hospital is a huge public facility so this decision will affect a lot of patients.  The hospital said they would continue to extract eggs, but they would not fertilize them.

 Here are a few links to articles on the subject.  

The Guardian: "Alabama’s supreme court ruled embryos are ‘extrauterine children’. IVF patients are worried"

MSNBC: Alabama’s embryos ruling is a terrifying preview of another Trump presidency [this link lead to a page that has a video on top; the video is not related to the story; read the article below the video]

NPR (3 minute audio): Alabama's largest hospital says it is halting IVF treatments in wake of court ruling

The Guardian: Alabama university pauses IVF care after frozen embryos deemed ‘children’

Politico: Major Alabama hospital stops IVF treatment after court rules embryos are children

NPR (3 minute audio): University of Alabama in Birmingham pauses IVF procedures due to embryo ruling

The Hill: Alabama hospitals halt IVF after ruling

The Hill:  How Alabama’s frozen embryo decision is shaking the nation: What you need to know

Politico: ‘Another hot potato’: Alabama’s IVF ruling risks political, legal backlash

Alex Wagner Tonight (video segment)

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