Decision in Alabama

Frozen embryos to be considered children

In the US state of Alabama, a court ruled that frozen embryos should be considered children.

(Bild: APA/dpa-Zentralbild/Ralf Hirschberger)

A court in the US state of Alabama has ruled that frozen embryos should be considered children (see video above). "Unborn human life is sacred," said the judge. In Alabama, abortions are also almost completely banned.

Due to the new ruling that frozen embryos are also to be regarded as children, several fertility clinics have already announced that they will no longer carry out in vitro fertilization for people who wish to have children. This is a technique that allows egg cells to be fertilized by sperm outside the woman's body. The process is carried out in a test tube and the fertilized embryo is then implanted in the uterus.

The process of artificial fertilization

(Bild: APA/dpa-Zentralbild/Ralf Hirschberger)

Patient accidentally dropped embryos
The background to the court's decision is a case in which three couples sued a hospital because their frozen embryos had been accidentally dropped and destroyed by a patient. The case was based on a law dating back to 1872, on which a lower court had previously ruled that frozen embryos could not be considered "persons" or "children". However, the Supreme Court overturned the ruling by seven votes to two. The 150-year-old law should be applied to "all children, without limitation" - "born and unborn."

Biden: "Outrageous and unacceptable"
US President Joe Biden described the ruling on Thursday as "outrageous and unacceptable". It was an interference in women's family planning. Vice President Kamela Harris added that it was ironic to deprive women of the right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy on the one hand and to deny them the possibility of a desired pregnancy through artificial insemination on the other.

The right to abortion was overturned by the Supreme Court a year and a half ago. In Alabama, abortions are only permitted if there is a serious health risk to the expectant mother. Rape and incest, however, are no exception. Doctors who perform abortions can be punished with a prison sentence of up to 99 years. In around two dozen other US states, abortions are also banned or at least severely restricted.