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Embryo loss is integral to IVF. Alabama’s ruling equating embryos with children jeopardizes its practice (www.statnews.com)

submitted 6 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world

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An embryo is one of the earliest stages of development of a multicellular organism. But according to the Supreme Court of Alabama, it is a person, too — an unborn child, entitled to the same legal protections as any minor.

The court ruled on Feb. 16 that a fertility clinic patient who accidentally destroyed other patients’ frozen embryos could be liable in a wrongful death lawsuit, writing in its opinion that “the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location,” and that this includes “unborn children who are located outside of a biological uterus at the time they are killed.”

This has had immediate and profound consequences on the practice of in vitro fertilization in the state, with many fertility clinics already deciding to interrupt their services for fear of legal repercussions, including the University of Alabama at Birmingham, which has paused its IVF treatments, as has Alabama Fertility Services.

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[-] pezhore@lemmy.ml 54 points 6 months ago

What I don't get about the fundies that think IVF is against god's will - what about any other scientific breakthrough? What about antibiotics? Cars?

Hell, every time you fly you're effectively spitting in the face of the "Almighty".

[-] hitmyspot@aussie.zone 30 points 6 months ago

Reading glasses always seem to be exempt for some reason.

[-] NightAuthor@lemmy.world 15 points 6 months ago

Not to mention guns… they love guns

[-] variants@possumpat.io 5 points 6 months ago

Not when others get them though, like the mulford act

[-] rzlatic@lemmy.ml 27 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

conservatives like to squeek "that's against god's will" but when conservative needs a heart stent or pacemaker to keep him alive, then god's will is not an issue. when conservative needs a kidney transplant, cancer treatment, or even glasses - there's no questioning against how god created their bodies.

as always, there's no biblical preachings when their asses and their life comfort are in question.

[-] lars@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 6 months ago

I have begun to interrupt myself on the many, many occasions when I realize the American Right does not care about ideological inconsistency and that I cannot better understand them or help anyone by recognizing them. It’s no fun but it’s less taxing than trying to understand their contradictory opinions.

[-] hypertext5689@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 months ago

By extension, even something as trivial as wearing clothes is against gods will. If their god didn't want people to see everyone in their birth suit, then we would've had in built clothing that wasn't form fitting and had a sac of air to turn everyone into a blob.

[-] Vorticity@lemmy.world 6 points 6 months ago

This just made me realize something. Hatred of knowledge is baked into the Bible.

Clothes weren't a trivial thing for Adam and Eve. When they ate fruit from the tree of knowledge they learned that they should be ashamed of their nakedness and began wearing "clothes". That was what tipped God off to the fact that they had eaten the fruit and is why they were kicked out of Eden.

So, according to the Bible, wearing clothes literally is against the will of God. Everything else we do with our knowledge is too since the ability to have knowledge derives from eating that fruit.

[-] letsgo@lemm.ee -2 points 6 months ago

Nice misquote. It's not the tree of knowledge, it's the tree of knowledge of good and evil. There is a difference.

Biblically there's nothing wrong with knowledge, as long as it's appropriately balanced with faith.

[-] Vorticity@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

That's some good pedantry. "The tree of knowledge" is common shorthand for "the tree of knowledge of good and evil". For example, take christianity.com.

Edit: I didn't mean to ignore your real point. It seems to me that "knowledge of good and evil" is what leads people to oppose things like IVF. They believe that they understand what is good and what is evil and are imposing their opinions on everyone else.

[-] letsgo@lemm.ee 0 points 6 months ago

Your argument appeared to be predicated upon "knowledge", not "knowledge of good and evil", hence the need for clarification. There is of course more to knowledge than good and evil.

[-] ugh@lemm.ee 14 points 6 months ago

I read some bickering about this amongst conservatives, and the reasoning seems to be:

Conception should occur from sex because of the love between husband, wife, and God or something
Typically, they'll harvest(?) multiple embryos, check if they are viable or have genetic abnormalities, then discard those that aren't viable or will result in major disabilities. To them, this is killing those unviable/unhealthy "babies". Sometimes the couple will freeze multiple embryos as backups, but not need them after a successful pregnancy (or more). Those microscopic globs of cells that they call babies are then "murdered". Their point is that this results in more deaths than lives.

I'm curious what their opinion would be if a woman wanted IVF after 5 miscarriages, was unable to get the treatment, and went on to have 7 more miscarriages, still without having a successful birth. To be real, fundie couples who refuse contraceptives and are hell bent on having a child could go through many more miscarriages than that.

[-] Teal@lemm.ee 7 points 6 months ago

The proclamations they make are all to get their way and not about religion at all. These people grab at anything to pass laws they want.

Alabama claims destroying embryos is against God’s will yet not long ago they executed a prisoner using nitrogen gas which caused that person to suffer for several minutes before dying. The state claims it was a success. If they were so concerned with God’s will they shouldn’t have done that.

Scientific discovery, cars and antibiotics are not against Christian beliefs but I’m sure if a person singles out a single passage, then twist and spin it you could make life itself blasphemous.

These government folks passing crap laws are just using anything they can to get their way, similar to how children behave.