The Alabama Supreme Court ruled on Feb 16, 2024 that embryos created through IVF should be considered living children. This ruling will make IVF procedures much more difficult to carry out In Alabama. 

IVF is a process that combines female eggs and male sperm to create embryos.This is an infertility procedure that helps people who can’t get pregnant on their own have the opportunity to start a family. This process involves the freezing and storing of embryos until time for them to be implanted. 

The freezing of these embryos is what keeps them alive and ready for implanting. When these are unfrozen, the question becomes: are these embryos actually dead or are they alive? Because of this question, there have been wrongful death lawsuits filed by parents in Alabama whose embryos were destroyed saying their children were killed.  

The question becomes are these frozen embryos considered living children? If so, is it considered murder if these embryos are unfrozen, mishandled, or destroyed prior to implantation? A 2020 lawsuit from Montgomery, AL ruled that these embryos were not considered alive and the case was dismissed. However, as of last week, the Supreme Court reversed this ruling stating that these embryos are alive noting “extrauterine children – or, unborn children located outside of a biological uterus at the time they are killed – are children, and they are covered under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor law.”

This recent ruling has raised concerns for the future of IVF given the increased liability now around possible embryo deaths, which also increases insurance costs and overall costs to the procedure. This could drastically reduce the number of people that can take advantage of this fertility procedure.