IVF doctors, patients fearful after Alabama court rules embryos are children
The Alabama Supreme Court ruling that embryos are children could lead to lawsuits for destroying frozen embryos, raising questions about in-vitro fertilization.
After three miscarriages in less than a year, Gabby Goidel said she was diagnosed with unexplained genetic infertility.
For reasons that aren't clear to doctors, any fetus she carries has a higher-than-average likelihood of genetic abnormalities, she said, so there is a slim chance she'd be able to carry a pregnancy to term without in-vitro fertilization.
To avoid the possibility of additional miscarriages, Goidel and her husband, Spencer, decided last year to pursue in vitro fertilization in their home state of Alabama.
IVF allows doctors to test embryos for genetic abnormalities, then implant only the ones that are healthy.
The Goidels were on track to freeze embryos later this month, and they planned to only store the ones that were genetically normal.
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