CV NEWS FEED // Pro Life advocate Lila Rose is praising the decision of the Alabama Supreme Court to reverse a prior ruling that dismissed a lawsuit against a fertility clinic over the “wrongful death” of a couple’s frozen embryos.
The Court ruled on Friday that the couple was entitled to sue the clinic under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, writing in the decision that “unborn children are ‘children,’” thereby extending the Act’s protections to unborn children from the moment of fertilization.
Rose, who is the founder and president of the national pro life organization Live Action, stated in a press release that the decision “affirms the scientific reality that a new human life begins at the moment of fertilization.”
“The Alabama Supreme Court decision should be applauded and used as a model of honest and prudential jurisprudence nationwide,” said Rose.
The couple had been trying to get pregnant through IVF at the fertility clinic named in the suit, when their frozen embryos “were destroyed by a wandering patient who gained access to the freezer,” according to the release.
A lower court had previously dismissed the case after determining that the embryos did not fit the definition of “child” or “minor.”
She continued:
Each person, from the tiniest embryo to an elder nearing the end of his life, has incalculable value that deserves and is guaranteed legal protection.
This ruling, which involved a wrongful-death claim brought by parents against a fertility clinic that negligently caused the death of their children, rightly acknowledged the humanity of unborn children created through in vitro fertilization (IVF) and is an important step towards applying equal protection for all.
“The United States Supreme Court should take notice,” Rose concluded, noting that the federal Constitution’s 14th Amendment “guarantees every person equal protection under the law—including preborn children.”
