MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A judge last week dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit that led the Alabama Supreme Court to rule that frozen embryos are “ectopic children,” a decision that drew national attention and in vitro fertilization services temporarily halted in the state.
A couple, who filed a wrongful death lawsuit over the accidental destruction of their last frozen embryo, asked to have the lawsuit dropped. A judge granted the request and dismissed the case Friday, according to state court records. Two other couples had similar lawsuits dropped in August.
The court order did not provide details on the reason for dropping the lawsuit or whether a settlement had been reached. Trip Smalley, an attorney representing the couple, did not immediately return an email and telephone message seeking comment.
The three couples’ embryos were destroyed in 2020 when a hospital patient walked into the storage room. The patient opened the container, picked up the embryos and dropped them on the floor.
The Supreme Court of Alabama reigned in February that the three couples could bring wrongful death claims for the destruction of the embryos. Judges, stating anti-abortion language The Alabama Constitution stated that an 1872 state law allowing parents to sue over the death of a minor child “applies to all unborn children regardless of their location.”
The decision became a flashpoint in the national debate over abortion and raised concerns about the liability of fertility clinics that create, store and work with frozen embryos. Three major IVF providers in Alabama suspended services in the wake of the ruling. Facing a public backlash over the decision, Alabama lawmakers approved immunity legislation to protect doctors from lawsuits and to restart IVF services in the state.
The couple, who had turned to IVF to have children, said in their 2021 lawsuit that the accident destroyed their last frozen embryo, which was stored at the facility. Even though they chose not to implant it, “they considered this embryo to be human or life,” their attorney wrote in the lawsuit.