How is the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling on IVF cruelly wrongheaded? Let me count the ways.
First, the court cites Scripture, Genesis 1:27, to declare that embryos, just like you and me, are “in the image of God” and must have the full protection of our civil laws. But the intent of Scripture, here and elsewhere, is to foster faith, not make a case for biological “facts.” That people relate to God and to the world as God’s representatives on Earth, with all the privileges and responsibilities of that lofty status, is the point. Biology was simply inconceivable for the writer, and would have been seen as completely beside the point, and misleading.
Second, their ruling ignores the fact that, prior to implantation in a uterus, an embryo cannot be nurtured to birth as a fully viable human being. Apparently they argue that its potential to become an actual human gives it all the rights of persons under our laws. That defies logic. As a comparison, let’s say that, because books can be protected under copyright law, the alphabet itself should be similarly protected. After all, the alphabet has the potential of becoming a written text. But that’s true only if the letters are “nurtured” into words, sentences, paragraphs, and finally “birthed” into a finished product. It’s ridiculous to consider random letters of the ABCs as worthy of legal protection. But it’s no more ridiculous than labeling embryos as “human beings.”
Third, bringing a child into the world is obviously the goal of IVF. When the usual ways of engendering a new life have failed, couples undergo the arduous, invasive, prolonged, and expensive process that produces embryos, hoping against hope that one of them will implant in a woman’s womb and begin the path to viability and eventual birth. Other embryos are not viable. No implantation, no child — it’s that plain and simple.
Finally, respect and compassion toward couples yearning to be loving parents must be top priority in this fraught situation. Rigid ideology cannot be allowed to prevail over their rights as fellow citizens in the United States.
Fred Reklau
Oak Park