US hospital halts IVF after court says embryos are children | BBC News

A ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court that frozen embryos are considered children, and that a person could be held liable for accidentally destroying them, has opened up a new front in the US battle over reproductive medicine.

The southern US state's largest hospital has paused its in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) services in the wake of the decision, over fears it could expose them to criminal prosecution.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham health system said it would continue retrieving eggs from women's ovaries. But it said it would halt the next step in the IVF process, in which the eggs are fertilised with sperm before being implanted into the uterus.

#Alabama #BBCNews

[marijo]

So in Alabama there will be some women who are forced to go through with an unwanted pregnancy, and other women who want to be pregnant but are denied the opportunity.

[libertadx]

If every human life is sacred, no one should be killed or left to die of malnutrition, loneliness, etc.

[williamhartz]

So a couple can get a tax write off on their income taxes since these embryos are considered “children”?

[jeanponton]

This reproductive issue is getting way too extreme

[FanOfAlot]

So if they are children now, we're gonna go by their actual age rather than zero months once they are actually born, right? I mean, this is what you want America, right? Younger workers?

[jessetorres]

Here's my question: If an IVF procedure in Alabama fails, does that mean the doctor and/or parents could be charged with murder?

[SGz_Eliminated]

It's shocking watching a society regress before your very eyes.

[malinolsson]

Wouldn’t commercial IVF automatically become buying and selling of humans with this ruling? Is that still ok in Alabama?

[FionaEm]

If I was an American woman of reproductive age, I'd be emigrating to a country that hasn't gone completely bonkers with misplaced religiosity 😧

[zyris]

Is it therefore legal to freeze children in Alabama?

[DavidGetling]

Now you know why people from all the other states snigger whenever Alabama is mentioned. This is like saying that an acorn is an oak tree.

[drewlovelyhell]

Alabama boldly leading America backwards, as usual.

[theCommentDevil]

How long til Alabama says its legal to marry your frozen embryo sister?

[ehenningsen]

The US is no longer the beacon of hope and freedom

[deepsingh]

So a human embryo enjoys more legal protection than those granted to some adult animals which are conscious, have feelings, and are capable of learning. Moral inconsistencies anyone? (Dawkins 2006)

[titteryenot]

Alabama Supreme Court: “Embryos are children.”
Alabama Hospitals: “Come collect your children, this is not daycare!”

[wardjunior]

Just when you think America can’t get any dumber.

[danomyte]

Oh come on. Embryos? This is just getting ridiculous. It’s literally just a bunch of single cells on a petri dish

[petetong]

Your body your choice with vaccine, but when it comes to your own organic cells, that’s the governments property. What is America coming too

[radomu]

What an incredible country America is. And they're about to re-elect Trump again. Unbelievable.