So CNN.com is carrying This story.
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."
I'm so sorry, but that is not a human being. It's not even close to a human being.
He said the couple is as entitled to seek compensation as any parents whose child has been killed.
I'm so sorry, but your glob of cellular material is not equal in value to the life of my ten year old. It's not equal in value to the life of a ten day old. Let me tell you where this is going.
"It may be groundbreaking, but it's the wrong decision," Connell said. "No appellate court has ever declared a fertilized egg a human being in a wrongful-death suit."Abortion opponents praised Lawrence's ruling. "Life begins at fertilization, not implantation," Pro-Life Action League director Joe Scheidler said.
There we go. So, the miscarriage I had when I was 8 weeks pregnant - who can I sue over that? Can I sue the doctor who told me I would probably miscarry as soon as I stopped taking my pills, because he didn't do something to prevent it? Can I sue the pill makers for letting it implant? Can I sue the school that was causing me stress?
WTF!!!!! Can we please, please have a little bit of common sense about this? Losing a glob of cells is not the same as losing a child. These people should be allowed to sue for the cost of the procedures that helped make the glob of cells, and they should be able to sue for emotional stress and damages, because I imagine when you're desperately trying to get pregnant and go through all that it would be traumatic to find out all that work was for nothing.
But it is not equal in value to the life a child because it is not the life of child. UGH.
Posted by Liz at February 5, 2005 8:57 PM