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Skip to contentSkip to site index Search & Section Navigation Section Navigation SEARCH Health SUBSCRIBE FOR $1/WEEKLog in Friday, February 23, 2024 Today’s Paper SUBSCRIBE FOR $1/WEEK I.V.F. Ruling in Alabama * What to Know * The Court’s Ruling * Read the Decision * What Happens Next? * The Chief Justice Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Supported by SKIP ADVERTISEMENT ACCIDENTS, LAX RULES AND ABORTION LAWS NOW IMPERIL FERTILITY INDUSTRY Fertility clinics are routinely sued by patients for errors that destroy embryos, as happened in Alabama. An effort to define them legally as “unborn children” has raised the stakes. * Share full article * * * 262 * Read in app An embryology lab’s liquid nitrogen tanks, which collectively can hold tens of thousands of frozen embryos and eggs, at a fertility clinic in New York.Credit...Carolyn Van Houten for The Washington Post, via Getty Images By Azeen Ghorayshi and Sarah Kliff Published Feb. 22, 2024Updated Feb. 23, 2024, 8:56 a.m. ET To the fertility patients whose embryos were destroyed at an Alabama clinic, the circumstances must have been shocking. Somehow, a patient in the hospital housing the clinic had wandered into a storage room, pulled the embryos from a tank of liquid nitrogen, and then dropped them on the floor — probably because the tank was kept at minus 360 degrees. The bizarre episode was at the center of lawsuits filed by three families that eventually reached the Alabama Supreme Court. On Friday, a panel of judges ruled that the embryos destroyed at the clinic should be considered children under state law, a decision that sent shock waves through the fertility industry and raised urgent questions about how treatments could possibly proceed in the state. Yet the accident in the Alabama clinic echoes a pattern of serious errors that happen all too frequently during fertility treatment, a rapidly growing industry with little government oversight, experts say. From January 2009 through April 2019, patients brought more than 130 lawsuits over destroyed embryos, including cases where embryos were lost, mishandled or stored in freezer tanks that broke down. Those errors have taken on new gravity as the anti-abortion movement aims to extend “personhood” to fetuses and embryos conceived through in vitro fertilization, arguing that they are “unborn children” and bringing cases to an increasingly polarized judiciary open to considering the idea. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT “When things go wrong with I.V.F., it opens a window for this kind of strategy,” said Sonia Suter, a law professor at George Washington University who has studied in vitro fertilization litigation. “To the extent that there is little regulation, it does provide an opportunity to promote the personhood agenda.” Denise Burke, senior counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom, which opposes abortion rights, called the Alabama decision “a tremendous victory for life” that protected “unborn children created through assisted reproductive technology.” Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like. Azeen Ghorayshi covers the intersection of sex, gender and science for The Times. More about Azeen Ghorayshi Sarah Kliff is an investigative health care reporter for The Times. More about Sarah Kliff A version of this article appears in print on Feb. 23, 2024, Section A, Page 18 of the New York edition with the headline: Alabama Decision on ‘Personhood’ Raises the Stakes for Fertility Errors. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe Read 262 Comments * Share full article * * * 262 * Read in app Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT COMMENTS 262 Accidents, Lax Rules and Abortion Laws Now Imperil Fertility IndustrySkip to Comments Share your thoughts. The Times needs your voice. We welcome your on-topic commentary, criticism and expertise. Comments are moderated for civility. SITE INDEX SITE INFORMATION NAVIGATION * © 2024 The New York Times Company * NYTCo * Contact Us * Accessibility * Work with us * Advertise * T Brand Studio * Your Ad Choices * Privacy Policy * Terms of Service * Terms of Sale * Site Map * Canada * International * Help * Subscriptions Enjoy unlimited access to all of The Times. See subscription options