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| AP |
The Alabama State Medical Association and the regional Hospital Association filed a brief supporting a request for a new hearing in a case that has attracted international attention.
Courts do not usually grant such requests, but the organizations indicated that the ruling is having serious consequences, as fertility clinics suspend their in vitro fertilization services. In addition, it is creating a cloud of uncertainty in the medical community, they added.
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"Many people who aspire to be parents will not be able to have children as a result of this court's decision. This is a tragedy throughout Alabama," wrote the organizations' lawyers.
Last month, the judges determined that three couples could file wrongful death lawsuits for their "extrauterine children" after their frozen embryos were destroyed in an accident at a fertility clinic's warehouse. The decision, which equates embryos with children or gestating fetuses under the state's wrongful death law, raised concern about the possible civil liability of the clinics.
The defendants — the Reproductive Medicine Center and the Mobile Infirmary Medical Center — filed a request on Friday to repeat the hearing.
The clinics' lawyers argue that the ruling is not consistent with other state laws, such as the fetal homicide law or abortion restrictions, which cover fetuses and embryos "in the uterus".
They also pointed out that Alabama lawmakers are trying to find ways to resume in vitro fertilization services by proposing legal protections for clinics. "The swift reaction of our Legislature to try to address the problems created by the Court's opinion seems to indicate that the Legislature's intention is not what the Court expected."
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The plaintiffs in the case had undergone in vitro fertilization treatments that resulted in the creation of several embryos, some of which were implanted and resulted in healthy births. The couples had paid to keep others frozen in a warehouse at the Mobile Infirmary Medical Center.
According to the lawsuit, in 2020, a patient entered the storage area through a door that was not locked, removed several embryos from a chamber, and dropped them on the floor, destroying them.