What’s next after the Alabama ruling that counts IVF embryos as children?

By KIM CHANDLER and GEOFF MULVIHILL
Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama Supreme Court ruled last week that couples who were trying in vitro fertilization and lost frozen embryos in an accident at a south Alabama storage facility can sue under the state’s wrongful death law. That decision was narrow, but legal scholars say the implications could be broad. One says that the ruling did not go as far as granting “personhood” to embryos, but that it still could resonate beyond the wrongful death law at the heart of the case. Some anti-abortion groups have pushed for “personhood” as a means of banning abortion. Because the ruling relied on Alabama’s state constitution, there might not be a path to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.