An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In humans, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male sperm cell. In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a process of fertilization where an egg is combined with sperm in vitro ("in glass"). In February 2024 the Supreme Court in the U.S. state of Alabama ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. The 1872 law allowed parents to recover punitive damages in the event…
Read more@ISIDEWITH2mos2MO
No
@9LN394L 1wk1W
This is not a scientific question. It is a moral one. Or, a religious one. It boils down to whether you believe in freedom or not. Do you think a woman is free to ask a doctor to help her with pregnancy or not. Do you think the State should be able to control peoples healthcare or not. Are you an authoritarian or not.
@9LS7K8L4 days4D
This is not a scientific question. It is a moral one. Or, a religious one. It boils down to whether you believe in freedom or not. Do you think a woman is free to ask a doctor to help her with pregnancy or not. Do you think the State should be able to control peoples healthcare or not. Are you an authoritarian or not.
@ISIDEWITH2mos2MO
Yes
@9LMDHQGProgressive2wks2W
if frozen embryos are human beings, why are they not counted in the population census? Saying frozen embryos are persons is like treating a seed as a fully grown plant, it is not one yet until it finishes the processes of development.
@9LL34L72wks2W
If Frozen Embryo's are "children" with the rights of a person, there can be little to no IVF, as much IVF involves selective reduction, wherein implanted, viable embryo's are removed/destroyed to increase the viability of other embryos.
@9LN394L 1wk1W
Ascribing personhood to an embryo is a dishonest way of banning it. If you want to ban the practice just say that. Don't be a coward. You are against the science of aiding women in a pregnancy they would otherwise not be able to have.
@AboardBip4rtisanGreen2mos2MO
So what's next? When a woman ovulates and doesn't conceive, she's killed an egg that could become a baby?
I just looked it up. SC justices in Alabama are elected in a partisan elections! All nine are Republicans.
@DeterminedPepperSocialist2mos2MO
When you vote for a theocracy you get theocracy, not a modern society with IVF and other secular miracles that overcomes your infertility.
Keep voting for men to control you life soon you may be able to adopt a forced birth child product of rape or incest as an alternative to IVF.
@Patriot-#1776Constitution2mos2MO
Why are you leftists "Pro-Choice" on the issue of the abortion, but clearly Anti-Choice on issues like taxation, forced participation in the Welfare state, legalized plunder, ludicrous business regulations, wage and price controls, fiat currency, central banking, anti-state's-rights, and the broadest possible interpretation of the constitution? In all of these issues, you clearly support voting for people to, as you put it "control your life" – people who include (shudder) MEN – but you choose to make an exception to your authoritarianism and support ANARC… Read more
@Patriot-#1776Constitution2mos2MO
You don't mean to say (shudder) that maybe judges have biases, and maybe there can be partisan courts in this country, that, I don't know, could wage legal warfare against the leader of the opposition political party and the leading candidate for President of the United States? That would be terrible! Good thing THAT doesn't happen in America, huh?
@Patriot-#1776Constitution2mos2MO
Apparently you lack either a basic understanding of this ruling OR the IQ level to understand its implications. This is not about calling women murderers who have a miscarriage, or any of that, nor does any conservative or sensible person in this country claim or imply that. This is about experimentation with human embryos in labs for profit. It's shutting down, and rightfully and justly shutting down, an industry that has moral implications of infinite importance. If the embryo is not a baby, what is it? What moral value does it have? Does it have more moral value than a leaf? Why or… Read more
This certainly raises questions. While I would tend to agree with critics of the decision, surely fertilized embryos do have potential to be viable and therefore deserve some respect. Do they deserve the same civil rights as born people? Maybe not. But let's not completely dismiss the notion that human fetuses are not merely material. Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak.
@TortoiseJoshWorking Family2mos2MO
An embryo is fertilized, evaluated & transferred days after the egg is collected. It is a collection of undifferentiated cells (8-10 cells at 72 hrs, whereas a fetus is the stage of development after 9 weeks and has a beating heart) that once transferred into the uterus *may* result in implantation & a positive pregnancy test by two weeks post transfer. Pregnancy is not guaranteed, nor is a healthy baby at the end of the process. Everyone working in the field desires to see pregnancy & healthy babies as the result, and are very cognizant of the cost, including emotional costs. These “lawmakers “ have not taken into account where this leaves those fertilized embryos, who pays for the extended storage & what legal & criminal liability medical staff & patients may face while this plays out in the courts.
@Patriot-#1776Constitution2mos2MO
If it's not a baby, what do. you think it is, and why do you support experimenting with, and developing and creating in labs for personal profit, living beings that you aren't sure the worth of? How can your conscience be satisfied when experimentation is going on against beings that could well have vast moral value? After all, you don't seem to know quite what to make of these embryos, nor do any of the Pro-Death people I've spoken to.
@9CJ6CB62mos2MO
Something you learn in basic biology classes, and that is continually agreed upon by later scientists: an embryo used in lab experimentation is usually 4-5 days after conception, with a cell count of 100-150, and absolutely no functional nervous system or feeling at all. It is not traditionally “human” in any sense of the word that would relate it directly to you. At that point, it’s basically just unique stem cells without a being that’s created from it. The embryo couldn’t be an actual fetus at any point, let alone a baby, so it’s nerves and feeling will… Read more
@Patriot-#1776Constitution2mos2MO
What moral worth do you think it has? That's the main question I have for you. Do you think it's more valuable than a clod of Dirt?
@KnowledgeSeahorseNo Labels2mos2MO
This ruling is just on time for tax filers. Don’t forget to claim your child tax credit. One for each embryo.
@C0nsensu5JayDemocrat2mos2MO
Maybe I should move to Alabama and adopt an embryo. I could get a big tax deduction and since I am close to retirement age I could collect extra social security since I have a dependent. Someone could foster a batch for extra money.
For the cost of running a freezer there is a lot of room for profit.
@KnowledgeSeahorseNo Labels2mos2MO
Vote blue unless you want to continue living in a dystopian society where women have no rights over their bodies. Abortion policies seem to change on a daily basis. Time for women to stand up and fight.
@Patriot-#1776Constitution2mos2MO
This is not about women's bodies, this is about baby's bodies, God-given rights, and the sanctity of human life. Government has one single purpose – to defend the God-given rights of its people. And the first priority in so doing, the fundamental purpose of the law, is to prevent the shedding of innocent blood, from the point of conception to the last desperate breath of old age, because without life, you cannot have liberty or property, or any other real or imagined right in existence – because if you are dead, how could you possibly exercise any right? Therefore the… Read more
@9K7C3XQ2mos2MO
I'm on the side that does not kill innocent babies. If frozen embryos can become babies, even though it is a weird process, it is important to protect the embryo.
@9CJ6CB62mos2MO
It really can’t, the clump of 100-150 cells used for experimentation can’t become a human because it requires an environment in the natural human body, which it is not given from the beginning under experimentation, because the embryo was never in a human in the first place to germinate and grow.
@lemans3427Republican2mos2MO
Crazy to think that the people who actually want to be parents are now in this limbo state. I can’t imagine how discouraging it is for them to go through this and feel like the state is against them. Alabama will most definitely lose some amazing, loving future parents to other states.
@Patriot-#1776Constitution2mos2MO
Don't be absurd. Alabama made a ruling that protects human life and stops experimention on human embryos, whose moral value, at bare minimum, is extremely uncertain. They made the just decision, because the only ethical position is to assume that embryos have the same moral value as other human beings, and treat them with respect accordingly – because if you aren't certain what moral value they have, why should you assume it's the same as some Potion a mad scientist concocted, or a lab rat, or heaven knows what else?
@FreeTradeJuliaForward2mos2MO
Imagine not realizing the sperm and egg are already alive before conception. Life begins long before conception; it’s a continuous chain. Republican pretense that life begins at conception is a red herring. The debate is over when human rights should begin, and who prevails when two humans’ lives are at odds.
@Patriot-#1776Constitution2mos2MO
Have you met a single person in your life who actually claims that sperm and eggs are human beings before they bond? I sure haven't, and certainly the vast, VAST majority of the Pro-Life movement does not believe that, because it can be scientifically disproven, However, it can be scientifically proven that from the point of conception an unborn child is a human being.
@LapwingBrett2mos2MO
So now its time to end organ donations? (since their heart is beating during harvesting) and pass laws that keep people on life support forever. These political laws need to stop.
@Patriot-#1776Constitution2mos2MO
No, and no one who supports Alabama like me ever claimed that – this is the Slippery Slope Fallacy, and the Straw Man Fallacy, all rolled into one ugly ball of dung.
@9K78HNF2mos2MO
here's the thing with this, are sperms and eggs considered children? it all comes down to what you believe should or should not be
@Patriot-#1776Constitution2mos2MO
Obviously not, because they haven't bonded yet and created a new life
@9LMFB3ZLibertarian2wks2W
No, They haven't in contact with semen and don't have a heart beat. It's no better than a seed that hasn't been planted.
@9LL7JBZ2wks2W
Frozen embryos in of itself should be questioned more and the morals behind potentially " growing children ".
@9K7T6QQ2mos2MO
An embryo is a stage of human development, however, a woman has a right to decide what to do with her body and that overrides the embryo
@9KM3M5D2mos2MO
No, that is not for individuals to determine. That is a costly decision for families to freeze embryos and not for public opinion.
@mart 2mos2MO
No, and no embryos have rights. IVF/ in vitro comprehensive genetic screening/ abortions are inalienable rights.
@9KDKR592mos2MO
If the family is actively attempting to have a baby then yes, but if they are extra embryos that the family no longer needs then no.
@9KC322L2mos2MO
When concerning ethics and experimentation, frozen embryos should be considered human and thus not be tested on without consent. When it comes to a mother deciding what to do with said fetus, it should be her choice.
@9KBFL2KRepublican2mos2MO
This process of creating people should not be used as embryos are naturally formed inside a women's body and recreating the process outside of the body in a lab is extremely unnatural.
@9K9P52X2mos2MO
Frozen embryos are not stand alone children, but parent should have the right to do with embryos, what they want regardless of the government
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