Two weeks after facing a backlash when Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled frozen embryos are legally children, Alabama lawmakers scrambled to put together a new legislation to help protect in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics from civil lawsuits and criminal prosecution. As Salon previously reported, the February ruling unleashed chaos for families as clinics across the state paused IVF treatments due to concerns about how and if embryos can be discarded, and what happens if transfers fail.
It is common for multiple eggs to be transferred and fertilized because not all transferred embryos turn into viable pregnancies. IVF patients usually have a few options for their fertilized eggs that haven’t been transferred: to discard them, donate them to research, donate them to another couple or keep them for a future pregnancy. But the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling raised questions IVF clinics and patients had never asked before: Could they be sued for manslaughter for discarding frozen embryos? Could patients be sued or criminally prosecuted if their own embryo transfers failed?
