ANALYSIS: IVF Ruling Reveals Legal Limbo for Embryos

The Alabama Supreme Court’s February ruling that frozen embryos are children demonstrates the unsettled state of the assisted reproductive technology space (ART) in the US. The status of embryos under the law is unclear in most states, and litigation against in vitro fertilization providers will leave them navigating a Wild West over the legality of the treatment.

In the Alabama case, the state high court found that the parents of embryos that were accidentally destroyed while being stored can seek relief under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act because “extrauterine children” fall within the act’s definition of “minor ...