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gilliam
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A frozen embryo destroyed in a Chicago fertility clinic was a human being whose parents are entitled to file a wrongful death lawsuit, a Cook County judge rules Friday.
Attorneys on both sides of the abortion issue said it was the first such ruling they have heard of as the country debates whether stem cells derived from embryos can be used in research and medicine.
Alison Miller and Todd Parrish hoped to conceive a child with help from the Center of Human Reproduction, but the one fertilized egg the couple created was thrown out in error by a clinic worker.
Friday, Judge Jeffrey Lawrence II said ‘a pre-embryo is a human being…whether or not it is impanted in its mother’s womb’ and the couple is entitled to seek the same compensation awarded to other parents whose children are killed. ‘Philisophers and theologians may debate,’ he wrote, but there is no doubt in the mind of the Illinois legislature when life begins. It begins at conception.’
Coleen Connell, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Chicago, said she expected the ruling would be overturned on appeal.
James Costello, who represented the couple said the clinic workers negligence was now at issue goven the ruling. ‘The embryo had a unique set of DNA not unlike a child and was just thrown out like a piece of garbage,’ he said.
Pro Life Action Leage director Joe Scheidler praised the ruling. ‘That is scientifically correct. Life begins at fertilization, not implantation.’ Northwestern Law Professor Dorothy Roberts warned that the ruling may have ‘scary’ and ‘dangerous’ implications for the law.
(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com …
Attorneys on both sides of the abortion issue said it was the first such ruling they have heard of as the country debates whether stem cells derived from embryos can be used in research and medicine.
Alison Miller and Todd Parrish hoped to conceive a child with help from the Center of Human Reproduction, but the one fertilized egg the couple created was thrown out in error by a clinic worker.
Friday, Judge Jeffrey Lawrence II said ‘a pre-embryo is a human being…whether or not it is impanted in its mother’s womb’ and the couple is entitled to seek the same compensation awarded to other parents whose children are killed. ‘Philisophers and theologians may debate,’ he wrote, but there is no doubt in the mind of the Illinois legislature when life begins. It begins at conception.’
Coleen Connell, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Chicago, said she expected the ruling would be overturned on appeal.
James Costello, who represented the couple said the clinic workers negligence was now at issue goven the ruling. ‘The embryo had a unique set of DNA not unlike a child and was just thrown out like a piece of garbage,’ he said.
Pro Life Action Leage director Joe Scheidler praised the ruling. ‘That is scientifically correct. Life begins at fertilization, not implantation.’ Northwestern Law Professor Dorothy Roberts warned that the ruling may have ‘scary’ and ‘dangerous’ implications for the law.
(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com …
