Why has the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos are ‘children’?

While the southern US state has not banned IVF, critics fear the ruling will make the treatment inaccessible.

The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, a decision that has drawn criticism from the White House and the top US infertility association.

Here is more about last week’s ruling and its implications for fertility treatment in Alabama.

Three couples filed a lawsuit against a fertility clinic after their frozen embryos for in vitro fertilisation (IVF) were destroyed. The embryos, stored in a cryogenic nursery, were destroyed by a patient who wandered into the nursery and accidentally dropped several of them on the floor.

A lower court ruled the embryos could not be defined as people or children and dismissed the wrongful death claim.

However, in a 7-2 ruling, the all-Republican Alabama Supreme Court disagreed. Citing Bible verses and an 1872 state law called the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, Justice Jay Mitchell declared parents may sue over the death of a child regardless of whether the child is born or unborn.