Pro-Life Powerhouses Rally Around Wrongful Death of Embryos

Preborn child at seven weeks from conception.

(Chicago — Nov. 20, 2006) In a case of surpassing public interest that recalls the historic Dred Scott decision that some human beings may be classified as mere "property," an Illinois personal injury lawyer filed a lawsuit against an in vitro fertilization clinic on behalf of a couple whose embryo had been mislaid or lost.

The lawyer's complaint alleged negligence causing property damage. But then he added a claim under the Illinois Wrongful Death statute. Two Cook County trial court judges dismissed the wrongful death count, ruling that only an embryo was at stake. But plaintiff's lawyer renewed the wrongful death claim before a third trial judge and the third judge handed down a carefully reasoned ruling that the wrongful death claim should be reinstated. Then the judge certified that his ruling should be immediately appealed. The appellate court held the appeal premature, probably trying to avoid such a "hot potato." But the in vitro clinic petitioned the Illinois Supreme Court, and the Justices responded with an order mandating that the appellate court proceed to hear and decide the appeal.

Embryos are more than mere "property."

We were asked to intervene. Special counsel Paul Linton crafted and filed a very substantial amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in defense of the trial court's ruling. The wrongful death statute authorizes suits by next of kin to recover damages whenever the life of a "human being at any stage of gestation or development" is lost through culpable neglect. Embryos are more than mere "property." According to the public policy declaration of the Illinois General Assembly that life begins at conception, they are human beings. That declaration is fully borne out by modern scientific authorities, which our brief cites and quotes over many pages. Common sense also dictates support for the trial court ruling, as an embryo is alive, not dead, and therefore qualifies as a "being." And if it isn't "human," then to what species does it belong?

The ACLU and other pro-abortion groups filed briefs in opposition to our amicus curiae brief, urging that the American College of Gynecologists (ACOG) discounts the value of embryos until they are implanted in the womb, deeming them mere "pre-embryos" before implantation. But ACOG stands alone and at odds with science, which is on our side! Each human being is stamped with a unique biological blueprint (absent an identical twin!) — his or her DNA — upon the fusion of sperm and egg.

Soon we will find out whether the Illinois Appellate Court panel is prepared to do the right thing and affirm this Illinois trial court ruling. Or will the appellate judges blink at the law and the relevant science? Will they bow before the arrogant claims of our opponents that somehow we're at odds with the Zeitgeist and that the spirit of our times commands that we grasp for ways to depreciate the value of human beings to allow for their destruction whenever inconvenient or "untimely"? Whatever the result, rest assured that we will press the matter as far and as high and as urgently we're able to press it!

TMS Documents

Press Release: Pro-Life powerhouses rally around controversial embryo-death suit, Nov. 20, 2006 (100 KB PDF)

Brief: Alison Miller and Todd Parish v. Center for Human Reproduction, Nov. 20, 2006 (210 KB PDF)

News Coverage

• Pro-Life groups support Illinois parents' wrongful embryo death lawsuit, Nov. 26, 2006, LifeNews.com 

• Dred Scott in a petri dish? Nov. 26, 2007, Illinois Parents and Children

• Pro-life powerhouses rally around controversial embryo-death suit, Nov. 21, 2006, Illinois Family Institute

Folded feet seven weeks from conception.	Hands at seven weeks from conception.
Photos used with permission of Life Issues Institute.