How about the 3 other couples being charged with child abandonment?
That’s where this is going. Have IVF and you may be charged with child abuse or attenmpted murder for throwing your kids in the freezer.
There are a number of states, including Alabama and Texas, in which I’d just flatly refuse to try to get pregnant.
What happens when we fertilize 8 successful embryos and the first treatment takes? Are we keeping those human lives in cryo for eternity or will God look the other way as we commit infanticide because we got one to pop out?
Is it ethical to keep a human life in cryogenics indefinitely without their consent?
no, false imprisonment and
child abuse
In all likelihood this has 2 ways it can go:
- It will be used to selectively enact punishment, while quietly IVF clinics throw spare “children” into the garbage and nobody makes a fuss because it’s the only possible way.
- IVF treatment ceases in Alabama.
Haven’t read the details, was this a case of one parent wanting, the other parent not? If that’s the case, it sounds consistent with homicide charges when an attack on a pregnant woman claims the life of an unborn child.
I don’t have context beyond what was posted, but looks like an unrelated(?) party pulled some embryos out of cryo, burned their hands and dropped them. The donors of the sperm/egg wanted to sue the person who destroyed them.
From all I’m reading it seems to be an accident as it’s not noted to be intentional. IMO they should be due the cost of the treatment to replace those embryos, and feasibly some amount of compensation for the labor/emotional cost. If they had an especially difficult time creating the embryos then compensation could be significant. But certainly shouldn’t be “wrongful death of a minor”, it should be destruction of property.
Edit: I realize the likelihood of any emotional damages is very low unless there are details that the accused intentionally targeted them, or was otherwise intentionally destroying embryos. We have no detail why they pulled them from cryo, but if it was simple curiosity, delirium, etc. then emotional damages probably wouldn’t happen, in any state that doesn’t consider clumps of frozen cells children.
Yeah, that seems reasonable.
“And for that matter all masturbatory emissions…”
I mean even pro-lifers typically say that life begins at conception so sperm that haven’t fertilized eggs should be fine to kill.
Thinking about this some more, the legal counter is likely “those human minors cannot live without either cryogenics or a womb. It is a crime to kill them, but also we cannot force a human to be impregnated against their will. Therefore the only ethical response is to keep the unborn humans alive indefinitely, in case at some point in the future there will be a womb to carry them or technology to develop them to infancy.”
I doubt IVF will actually end, because that inconveniences wealthy white people. However I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s drastically affected, as in “we must implant every viable embryo in you every time.”
Most, but not all. Some believe contraception should not be permitted, particularly those that would like to increase the supply of white babies.
I.e., RNN
This is a weird but absolutely true intersection of the beliefs of anti-choice activists and Great Replacement Theory racists.
Both of them think that outlawing abortion and contraception will somehow result in more white babies outpacing POC babies, even though they’re simply wrong about that.
My best reasoning for the fallacious idea, however, is that POC have worse access to healthcare, so it’s rich white women getting abortions.
A quote from the article, for context:
And FWIW, here’s the law:
I was reading the actual law earlier.
It looks like what this actually does is (A) nothing immediately related to criminal law. However, abortion is already illegal in Alabama except for the nebulous “life of the mother” situation, as in Texas. I could see this leading into more extreme interpretations. (B) it allows for the donors of those embryos to sue for monetary damages as though you killed a baby, rather than an embryo.
No idea how much money a wrongful death lawsuit can fetch in Alabama, but I’m sure it’s a lot more than for property damage. Now the person who destroyed those embryos will pay the same as if they’d stabbed a baby. Whatever criminal issues may befall them I could not say.
They’d then figure out that a genocide of black and brown folks is required.
Or, they’d force some sterilizations. “States Rights!!”
The only thing that we’re not doing is we’re not shooting people who come across the border, because of course, the Biden administration would charge us with murder
They stole my extremely distasteful idea??
The US has a long history of forced sterilization of POC and mentally disabled citizens (and slaves).
In 2010 it officially stopped in prisons, but I am pretty certain there have been allegations of it still happening to citizens, not to mention migrants to which it is certainly happening.