Posted on 02/05/2005 7:55:34 AM PST by gopwinsin04
A frozen embryo destroyed in a Chicago fertility clinic was a human being whose parents are entitled to file a wrongful death lawsuit, a Cook County judge rules Friday.
Attorneys on both sides of the abortion issue said it was the first such ruling they have heard of as the country debates whether stem cells derived from embryos can be used in research and medicine.
Alison Miller and Todd Parrish hoped to conceive a child with help from the Center of Human Reproduction, but the one fertilized egg the couple created was thrown out in error by a clinic worker.
Friday, Judge Jeffrey Lawrence II said 'a pre-embryo is a human being..whether or not it is impanted in its mother's womb' and the couple is entitled to seek the same compensation awarded to other parents whose children are killed. 'Philisophers and theologians may debate,' he wrote, but there is no doubt in the mind of the Illinois legislature when life begins. It begins at conception.'
Coleen Connell, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Chicago, said she expected the ruling would be overturned on appeal.
James Costello, who represented the couple said the clinic workers negligence was now at issue goven the ruling. 'The embryo had a unique set of DNA not unlike a child and was just thrown out like a piece of garbage,' he said.
Pro Life Action Leage director Joe Scheidler praised the ruling. 'That is scientifically correct. Life begins at fertilization, not implantation.'
Northwestern Law Professor Dorothy Roberts warned that the ruling may have 'scary' and 'dangerous' implications for the law.
(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...
Just because we CAN doesn't mean we SHOULD.
>>>Is this the first time a court has done this??
I don't know. I don't follow all the legal battles on this as closely as I should. I'm more of a peanut gallery rallier for this one.
Coleus, isn't this a first time court ruling? Hence is why we want to make this a precedent?
This might indeed be good for a legal precedent I would think.
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Reply #61 was one of the lines at the end of the movie, "Jurrasic(SP) Park." Because technology has created so many issues involving embryos, it resonated with me at the time and I never forgot it.
Oh, my! This ruling just takes my breath away.
It's enough that the judge allowed the lawsuit, by upholding the humanity of the child. This is not going to be a case of loss of property or body part of the mother. This is a huge jump in verification of the status of a human, who happened to be an embryo.
thanks, it's a good line to remember and true.
Wow
According to the linked article at the Sun-Times, there were originally 9 embryos and only one was frozen. The article implies that that was the only one that was viable. And there is no explanation as to why there was a delay in implantation.
It's potentially ethically problematic that there were 9, then 8. But, if the other 8 never grew correctly, or died after a few divisions, then there's no ethical dilemma. In that case, they were creating human life for the sake of the children themselves, at least as much as any parent who plans and yearns for a child. So the manipulation, using God-given medical technology (IMHO) was ethical.
That is the key to ethical reproductive technology: respecting each human life for him or herself, even while utilizing high technology to initiate his or her life.
Embryos which are frozen do not require the skills of a neonatal nurse, only a thermostat. That would be a given, no matter which country the parents and child reside in. On the other hand, the tax deduction is an artificial phenomenon, dependent on local laws, not the fact of life and care.
You have hit the sticking point.
The only difference between the embryos that are frozen but then discarded at the parents' request, is the fact of being wanted.
That is the de facto definition of human life at the current time, as far as abortion law is concerned: does Moma want her child to live? If she doesn't she can kill - or hire someone to do it - him or her up to the point of birth.
I recall when the technique was first developed and thinking the Catholic Church was wrong for denying women access to 'modern scientific methods' for achieving the ultimate goal of motherhood. At the time, it seemed 'good'. But, you are absolutely correct and that is why the church ruled it wrong. Pope Paul VI took a lot of heat on this encyclical from catholics and the scientific community; now, we can fully grasp the inspired nature of HUMANAE VITAE
Not sure how relevant this point is: If they settle before the appeal then doesn't the case end as the embryo is a human? Then there can be no overturning by the leftist appeals judges. It becomes case law. Other jurisdictions can then use this as settled precedent for similar rulings. Maybe then abortion will end not with an all out bang but with a whimper. The left loves to thwart the will of the people through the power of the courts. Maybe this is sweet irony when the rights of the unborn and the majority of Americans are actually supported by the courts.
I pray that this horror finally ends.
BTTT!!!!!!
We also have friends who had all the embryos implanted. They now are the parents of triplet girls and they doubled their family size. They are staunchley pro-life.
The story is also here with more commentary.
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