CHICAGO - A couple whose frozen embryo was accidentally destroyed at a fertility clinic has the right in Illinois to file a wrongful-death lawsuit, a judge has ruled in a case that some legal experts say could have implications in the debate over embryonic stem cell research.
In an opinion issued Friday, Cook County Judge Jeffrey Lawrence said "a pre-embryo is a 'human being' ... whether or not it is implanted in its mother's womb."
He said the couple is as entitled to seek compensation as any parents whose child has been killed.
This lawsuit is nonsense. Here's why:
The suit was filed by Alison Miller and Todd Parrish, who stored nine embryos in January 2000 at the Center for Human Reproduction in Chicago. Their doctor said one embryo looked particularly promising, but the Chicago couple were told six months later the embryos had been accidentally discarded.
What was the couple going to do with all those extra embryos? Were they planning on having nine children? Unless they were planning on keeping the embryos frozen indefinitely (not very likely) or planning on using them all (also unlikely) some were going to be discarded. They're suing the clinic for doing something accidentally they would have had to do on purpose eventually anyway. I can understand them suing for the mistake by itself, but calling it murder? Come on. They wouldn't have called it murder if the clinic were discarding them after they were no longer needed.
And besides, an embryo isn't a life before it is implanted in the mother's womb any more than a seed is a plant before it is placed in the ground and allowed to germinate.