Following a recent state Supreme Court ruling, the University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System announced it would suspend all in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments, fearing criminal prosecution and punitive damages. On Friday, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are “children” with full moral rights and that those who destroy them can be held liable in wrongful death lawsuits. I put it down. The Hill reports: “While we regret that this will impact patients' attempts to have babies through IVF, we do not believe that patients and physicians may face criminal prosecution or punitive damages for following the standard of care for IVF treatment. ” the health system said. […] The standard procedure for IVF is to fertilize multiple eggs and then implant one into a woman's uterus. Remaining normally developing embryos can be frozen for later use at the patient's request and consent. But legal experts say it's unclear whether this standard practice is illegal in Alabama and could make in vitro fertilization virtually impossible in the state.
According to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, the best-developed embryos are transferred to patients to try to conceive, and the rest are for later use in case the first embryos do not develop into reproductive growth or do not result in a live birth. will be frozen. The patient later wishes to have another child. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 238,126 patients underwent IVF treatment in 2021, resulting in 97,128 babies born in the last year for which statistics are available. There are 453 IVF clinics across the country.