WTF?!? |
"This chruch or that church" perhaps, but NOT the Catholic church. |
Yet here we are with churches writing laws for us. |
We need to agree to disagree. I would urge people to get infertility treated if they can. And vote to ensure important medical treatments are not outlawed in Alabama or anywhere else. |
It seems more like destruction of property rather than 'unlawful death' would have been the proper route here, unless you have a the zealous of a religious fanatic. |
As Christianity fades in popularity with the young look for an active minority of Christian Nationalists, and frankly, zealots, to try and grasp for power like this. |
No. It is a fact, not an opinion, that the Catholic church does not encourage IVF. |
Ding, Ding, Ding. We have a winner! |
In fact IVF is not outlawed in Alabama but calling frozen embryos people will have the same effect because clinics cannot operate in such an environment. This is abusively cruel and must be stopped. |
Are you infertile? |
Contrast this with Jewish and Mormon congregations that actively encourage IVF usage as a matter of religious belief to reproduce. This is an insane precedent in Alabama against its Jewish and Mormon citizens. |
I can guarantee that many many Catholics find this teaching about IVF to be completely misguided and have conceived thousands and thousands of children via IVF. The Catholics baptize them and they sit in those pews if they choose and the earth spins on just fine. Do what you need to do folks. |
And they vote for Biden! |
and any Christians or other rational people there who want to use IVF. |
So being a nerdy lawyer I was very curious about this case. It seems to be very Alabama law specific and hinged on whether the term "unborn child" of Alabama's Wrongful Death of a Minor Act includes embryos kept outside a uterus or "extrauterine children" aka frozen embryos kept in a freezer. Alabama already defines embryos as children because they're ruled life begins at conception but now we are talking about frozen embryos not inside a woman's uterus. In this crazy case, the fertility clinic had their storage facility located inside a hospital and someone some unauthorized crazy person was able to walk into the storage room, open the special cryogenic freezer, pick up several embryos out of that freezer and drop them all over the floor (because the severe cold burned their hands so as a reflex they dropped them). So the embryos died. The case doesn't go into more of those facts like why were the door and freezer unlocked, who was this nut job, why did they do it, etc. The families want to collect punitive damages under the Alabama Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, which is why they argued the embryos were children and not property. Hospital and Fertility Clinic argued that there an exception to this act because these embryos were not inside a uterus, but plaintiffs argued that would violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment (I think this point is key). I wouldn't be surprised to see that argued in the future. The court stated it didn't keep to decide that part because "unborn children are children under the Act, without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics;" and because of that simple ruling it won't decide any of the other parts, case over. Here is a link to the decision. https://publicportal-api.alappeals.gov/courts/68f021c4-6a44-4735-9a76-5360b2e8af13/cms/case/c93db586-ec08-4f14-a6ba-a149967e68b0/docketentrydocuments/bb88f2bf-19ca-498f-9fe2-f754d36c0ff2 |