Embryos Are People: The Alabama Hypocrisy

The new Alabama law that designates frozen embryos as people has set a strange precedent that could backfire against conservatives and Christians.

Current Events :
Last week, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos created and stored for in vitro fertilization (IVF) are children. The new state law will now allow parents to sue over the “death” of their embryos the same as they would for the wrongful death of their minor children. Specifically, the ruling has revived lawsuits from 3 families who accused the Center for Reproductive Medicine fertility clinic and the Mobile Infirmary Hospital in Mobile, Alabama of failing to properly safeguard frozen embryos, which resulted in their destruction.

According to Reuters, the 8-1 majority of the court ruled that “unborn children” are “children.” The court referred to a 2018 amendment to the state’s constitution, which declared that it was “the public policy of this state to recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children.”

“Unborn children are ‘children’ … without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics,” Justice Jay Mitchell wrote in the majority ruling by the all-Republican court.

The ruling means that hospitals and clinics will no longer be allowed to legally discard frozen embryos when a couple no longer wants to use them, divorces, or dies. So, what will happen to them, then?

Sadly, this longstanding Christian conservative position has the potential to backfire.

If embryos are actually “people,” then how long before sperm is given the same treatment? How long before men can be prosecuted for masturbating and “killing” their children?

The idea is not far-fetched, particularly since Chief Justice Tom Parker wrote: “Even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing His glory.”

Since sperm contains at least part of the necessary genetic materials to make a human and bears (in his words) “the image of God,” then what’s next after embryos?

“If an “extrauterine” embryo can be declared a child, even though it is unborn, not viable, and doesn’t even have differentiated cells, why shouldn’t sperm be viewed as children, just because they’re as yet “unmatched” with a genetic partner?” asked an online user.

The truth is that conservatives have been trying for decades to erase the separation of church and state and turn their moral beliefs into laws that all must follow.

The sad hypocrisy here is that for all the hoops Republicans and Christian conservatives jump through to allegedly “protect” children, those protections immediately disappear once a child is born. Or, in other words, GOP activists say they want to protect embryos that are not yet alive — but want to condemn to hell children’s after-school initiatives, child health care, and more for kids who are living, breathing, and actually walking the earth.

OK WASSUP! covers Current Events:
The Alabama frozen embryos dilemma.