HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Three Alabama fertility clinics have paused in vitro fertilization due to legal risks after an embryo ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court Friday. FOX54 spoke with a local fertility institute Medical Director to learn more about how or if this ruling will affect the local practice.
Fertility Institute of North Alabama Medical Director Brett Davenport believes the Alabama law was written with good intentions. "And I stand behind it. It just, I think, if anything, the law did not due diligence in addressing a detail like this. And I've got high hopes that the Legislators are going to do the right thing and just add an Amendment that clarifies that this in no way ever was intended to apply to IVF embryos."
According to the Associated Press the Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, a decision critics said could have sweeping implications for fertility treatment in the state. The decision was issued in a pair of wrongful death cases brought by three couples who had frozen embryos destroyed in an accident at a Mobile fertility clinic. "By ruling that an embryo has the right of a child that makes it to where it's up in the air what we can do once they are cryopreserved," said Davenport.
Furthermore, for those also wondering more about how the embryo process works, Davenport explains in further detail. "So the process is we stimulate a woman's eggs, we get as many eggs as we can. so if a couple does end up using five embryos and gets three children from it and they have three embryos left or however many at that point, we're left with the question, well, what what can we do with those? You know, there's the option there's several other options. But one of those options is to discard those embryos because we're done with them and they are ours. You know, ours, meaning the patients, and this law sort of ties our hands to that."
Lastly, for patients considering IVF, Davenport said don't give up just yet. "I would say that this should not change anything at all in that decision. There are several different ways to skin the cat, so to speak."