Today, AAAA issued the following press release reacting to the recent Alabama Supreme Court decision regarding the status of embryos.
IVF patients should have the right to make personal decisions regarding their health care and family building without governmental interference.
The Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys (AAAA) is a credentialed, nonprofit organization of approximately 500 attorneys, judges, and law professors throughout the United States, Canada and abroad. Our Fellows are distinguished in the legal fields of adoption and assisted reproductive technology. We support and advocate for the rights of individuals to form legally secure families. Understanding the intersection of reproductive technology medicine and the law, AAAA is dedicated to the ethical practice of assisted reproductive technology law and to advancing policy that promotes equitable access to fertility care.
AAAA is deeply concerned and dismayed over the recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling allowing for a wrongful death claim to be asserted in a dispute over cryopreserved embryos. “While we hope that the Alabama legislature takes steps to immediately address the widespread implications of this opinion, any legislative correction to this chilling effect on IVF must include both the ability to pursue this medical treatment and for all related decision making to remain exclusively between the patient(s) and their physician without government interference. These decisions include all agreements regarding the cryopreservation and disposition of any embryos created during IVF treatment,” stated Nidhi Desai, Director of ART Policy for AAAA.
Margaret Swain, President of AAAA, underscored the human impact of the court decision: “It is difficult to fully appreciate the anguish of Alabama fertility patients who cannot now move forward with their hopes to have children.”
AAAA remains committed to education and advocacy to protect the patient-physician relationship regarding family building.
AAAA is headquartered in Greenwood, Indiana. For more information, visit us at adoptionart.org.
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Printable Copy of the Full Press Release: AL Supreme Court Decision Press Release(2024)