Alabama Supreme Court declares frozen embryos to be children

The Supreme Court of Alabama has ruled that a frozen human embryos are to be treated as “extrauterine children”  for the purposes of Alabama’s “Wrongful Death of a Minor Act,” and fall under protection of that state’s Sanctity of Life Amendment. 

Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker wrote in his concurring opinion that “all human beings bear God’s image from the moment of conception.” 

This display of righteous absolutism in the defense of life is galling, given the court’s silence in the face of the state’s recent execution of Kenneth Smith by nitrogen suffocation, a new and untested method, during which he was seen struggling for life for 22 minutes.  

For biological context, frozen embryos are typically three to five days old. They sometimes have as few as four cells. Eight or more cells at day 3 is considered ideal. These embryos are then graded, with the highest quality ones used first, with the remainder frozen for possible later use, or potentially discarded.  

Sources:

www.alreporter.com/…

advancedfertility.com/…

www.healthline.com/...