Destroyed Embryo Deemed Human-Legal Ramifications?

Destroyed Embryo Deemed Human

February 5, 2005

BY STEVE PATTERSON AND ABDON M. PALLASCH Staff Reporters

A frozen embryo destroyed in a Chicago fertility clinic was a human being whose parents are entitled to file a wrongful-death lawsuit, a Cook County judge ruled Friday. Attorneys on both sides of the abortion issue said it was the first such ruling they had heard of as the country debates whether stem cells derived from embryos can be used in research and medicine.

Alison Miller and Todd Parrish hoped to conceive a child with help from the Center for Human Reproduction, but the one fertilized egg the couple created was thrown out "in error" by a clinic worker.

Friday, Judge Jeffrey Lawrence II said "a pre-embryo is a 'human being' ... whether or not it is implanted in its mother's womb" and the couple is entitled to seek the same compensation awarded to other parents whose children are killed.

"Philosophers and theologians may debate," he wrote, "but there is no doubt in the mind of the Illinois Legislature when life begins. It begins at conception."

James Kopriva, attorney for the fertility clinic, declined to comment, saying they were weighing their options. Colleen Connell, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Chicago, said she expected the ruling would be overturned on appeal.

"It may be groundbreaking, but it's the wrong decision," Connell said, predicting the ruling could chill doctors' interest in reproductive medicine. "No appellate court has ever declared a fertilized egg a human being in a wrongful-death suit."

'Scary' implications

Northwestern University law professor Victor Rosenblum, an abortion opponent, said he admired the judge's ruling but expected that the appellate and state Supreme Court would want to weigh in. "This is the first case I've heard of like this."

Pro-Life Action League director Joe Scheidler praised the ruling. "That's scientifically correct: Life begins at fertilization, not implantation."

Northwestern University law professor Dorothy Roberts said the ruling has "dangerous" and "scary" implications for the law.

Courts have upheld statutes that allow homicide charges when fetuses are killed along with their mothers but have not extended the same legal status to unimplanted embryos, the experts said.

James Costello, who represented the couple with Paul McMahon, said the clinic worker's negligence is now at issue, given the ruling.

"This couple was trying to have children," he said. "They had nine blastocysts, the doctor said one looked great. So it was frozen and they came back later to have it unfrozen, when they were told, 'Whoops -- we made a clerical mistake and threw it in the garbage.'"

The embryo "had a unique set of DNA" not unlike a child "and was just thrown out like a piece of garbage," he said.

The couple had sought fertility help in 2000. Parts of their case were thrown out last year, but the courts allowed them to request a new hearing on the issue of a wrongful-death case. While the state's definitions of when life begins provided the basis for their case, they also relied on a pair of memos from clinic chairman Dr. Norbert Gleicher.

Gleicher says he was "extremely sorry" for "this very obvious error" caused by a "communication mix-up," finishing with an "offer of a free [in vitro fertilization] cycle as a gesture of goodwill on our part."

He said those responsible no longer work for the clinic: One left to work for a different Chicago fertility clinic, and another left to spend more time with her children.

Connell and Roberts said the couple should be able to sue for their loss, but under a tort or breach-of-contract claim, not a wrongful-death action.