Embryos as People
A nightmare in two acts by Robin Reardon
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The issue of reproductive choice stands as a cornerstone of individual autonomy and human rights. At its core, it is the fundamental right of individuals to make decisions regarding their bodies, sexuality, and parenthood. This is true of queer people as much as anyone else, and in the case of reproductive technologies, has particular import for those of us who want to have children but cannot conceive in the usual way.
In this week’s guest post below, Qstack member Robin Reardon delves into the February decision by the Alabama State Supreme Court that recognized frozen embryos as “children,” for which people could be held responsible for destroying them by accident or otherwise.
Although a Republican-led bill to shield IVF clinics from liability has since been signed into law by Republican Governor Kay Ivey, the battle for bodily autonomy continues to morph in new and worrying ways. For example, just two weeks ago, Arizona’s Supreme Court opened the way for enforcement of a 160 year old total abortion ban.
Meanwhile, the current tally of legislation attempting to limit trans people from receiving basic healthcare, education, legal recognition, and the right to publicly exist stands at 429 active bills in 42 states.
In 2024, 23 of those bills have passed.
Embryos as People
ACT ONE. SCENE:
A doctor’s office in an IVF (in vitro fertilization) clinic in Mobile, Alabama.
The date is Tuesday, January 23, 2024; 2:00 PM.
Bright afternoon light shines through the triple windows of the office and onto the side of a doctor’s face. He is behind a desk. A woman and a man sit in chairs facing the desk.
CHARACTERS:
Laura and Bob Seaver, a married couple in their mid-thirties
Dr. Carl Benson, forty-ish, thinning hair, tortoiseshell glasses
DR. BENSON: Great news! I’m delighted to say we have success this time. I know this process has been grueling. But thanks to the thirty eggs we’ve harvested, we now have twenty-one viable embryos to work with.
LAURA: Oh! Thank you so, so much! [Heaves a huge sigh.] Grueling is one word for it. All those injections! And then the harvesting process. All those weeks, just praying that something good would come of it!
BOB [hands relaxing their grip on the chair’s arms]: Oh my God. Thank God. [Takes Laura’s hand.] Now we won’t have to go through this again.
DR. BENSON: Most of the embryos will remain frozen until we’re ready to implant.
BOB: So we start right away?
DR BENSON [smiling]: Absolutely. [Looks at LAURA.] I think you said you wanted to implant two to start with. Yes?
LAURA [looking exhausted, but beaming] Yes. I would love twins.
ACT TWO. SCENE:
A kitchen table spread with the remains of dinner for four. There are six chairs around the table.
The date is Sunday, February 11, 2024; 8:30 PM.
CHARACTERS:
Bob and Laura Seaver
Becca Jerome and John Everton, a married couple in their late thirties, close friends of the Seavers’
BECCA: This is really none of my business, so don’t answer if it’s awkward, but I’d love to know how much these treatments cost.
BOB [looks at LAURA, who nods once]: Ha. I’m not sure you do want to know. It’s $17,500 per treatment, and there’s no guarantee that any given treatment will result in viable embryos. In fact, the first time we did this, nothing survived. This was our second attempt. Plus the medications for two attempts took another few thousand out of our savings. So... you do the math.
JOHN: Good God in heaven.
[Silence for several seconds.]
BECCA [a concerned look on her face]: So you now have some number of frozen embryos. Fertilized embryos. Right?
LAURA [beaming]: We do. They took thirty eggs. Only twenty-one became viable, though. We’ve implanted two, and I’m hoping for twins. But if not, we have nineteen more embryos to work with.
BECCA: Is that typical? To lose nearly half?
LAURA: Usually, more than half don’t “take.” So two-thirds is really great. Obviously we want these two to survive. But if they don’t, we have nineteen to fall back on. We can try again without going through that horrendous ordeal again. [Tilts head, looking at Becca.] You seem worried.
BECCA [shrugs uncomfortably]: It’s just that.... Well, as you know, I’m a family law attorney.
BOB: So?
BECCA [lets out a long breath]: Are you aware of the case in the Alabama Supreme Court? The one for which we expect a final ruling this week?
LAURA [apparently confused]: What are you talking about? What ruling?
BECCA: It concerns the question of whether a fertilized embryo is a person.
JOHN: That’s crazy. Of course it isn’t. I mean, maybe my medical specialty is geriatrics, but I know that a fertilized embryo isn’t viable. Even at five days old, it’s just a blastocyst, a hollow ball of cells less than a millimeter across, with a high likelihood of disintegrating within a few days. In fact, somewhere between thirty and sixty percent of them, invitro, die before the mother even knows they’re there.
[Silence for several seconds.]
BOB: So what does it mean if the court says the other nineteen of our embryos are already people? What if we have twins this year and we decide not to have any more children? [Throws one hand into the air.] We have twenty-one embryos. We don’t have twenty-one children.
BECCA: If the ruling goes the way I’m thinking it will, you will have at least nineteen children. Frozen children. Twenty-one, if the two implants survive.
JOHN [makes a scoffing sound]: So it will be legal to freeze a person, whether they’re five days old in a tube or fifty years old in a golf cart? I have a few candidates in mind. Wait. [Glances at BOB and chuckles.] This could be an advantage, you guys. You can take tax deductions for all those dependents.
LAURA: This isn’t funny, John.
BECCA [gives John a stern look before turning to Laura]: Another consideration will be that you’ll have to keep paying the clinic to maintain those embryos. That’s expensive.
BOB: That’s insane! Does that mean if we don’t use them, we’ll be paying preservation fees for the rest of our lives?
LAURA: And if we do have any children, that financial burden will become theirs?
[LAURA and BOB look at BECCA expectantly. BECCA shrugs again.]
JOHN [scowling]: So say there’s a hurricane—think Katrina—that takes out the clinic, and their generator kicks in. But the power is out for days, and they can’t get fuel for the generator. The embryos thaw. Will the clinic be charged with murder for each embryo they were storing?
BECCA: As the case reads now, yes.
[BOB and LAURA exchange looks.]
LAURA [breathlessly]: What should we do?
BECCA: If I were you, before the end of the week I’d go and ask for most of those embryos to be turned over to you. Don’t keep any more at the clinic than you’re willing to have treated as a child.
LAURA: But—but they’d die!
BOB [leaning his head in his hands]: All that money. All that grief. [Drops his hands onto the table.] Becca, what the fuck?
LAURA [Near tears]: And if we don’t have a child from the embryos we leave frozen, we’d have to do IVF all over again!
BECCA: If you can find a clinic to do it, yes. If that ruling goes the way it looks like it will, I don’t think any fertility clinic could continue to do business in Alabama. I mean, how can they take on the financial and ethical responsibility for what are legally the lives of thousands of people, and remain in business? The insurance alone would kill them, if they could even get any.
JOHN: Seems to me these clinics might just close and turn all the embryos over to the donors.
BOB [Horrified]: Wouldn’t that make the parents legal murderers if they don’t have a way to keep them alive?
BECCA: Very possibly. My mind reels at the law suits. Bad enough if someone in a clinic drops a tray today, which is what started the current case. Without that ruling, there would be a law suit from the donors, but it would be limited, and it would be in favor of the donors’ financial outlay and their mental distress. Not murder.
BOB: So let me get this straight. If this thing goes through, counting the two implants we’ve done already, we’ll be liable for the lives of all twenty-one children. And if we do as you suggest and take, say, twelve of the embryos and let them die before the ruling, we’re still liable for seven. And, God forbid, if the clinic closes and makes us take the embryos, we’d have to find a way to keep them alive or be arrested for murder? Murders, plural?
BECCA: Keep in mind all these scenarios are yet to be tested. But what you describe is entirely possible.
LAURA: Okay, but what if that ruling doesn’t happen? What if they don’t pass it?
BOB: What if they do?
END SCENE
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Woah... I am genuinely, jaw on the floor, stunned. Thank you, Robin. This was a brilliant way of communicating the real horror and insanity of what we're up against at the moment. Mind blowing.
Chilling.