Using 19th-century slavery laws as the legal basis for his decision, a Virginia judge ruled that frozen human embryos were legally considered property.
Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Richard Gardiner issued a preliminary opinion last month, based on steps from Virginia’s history where judges were legally permitted to possess humans. We are under scrutiny of attorneys who we believe have unfairly justified the decision.
Gardiner’s ruling, District Court Judge for the 19th Judicial District of Virginia, came amid a dispute between a divorced man and a woman whose ex-wife wanted to use two frozen embryos created during their marriage to conceive another child. Done. .
Susan Crockin, an attorney, academic and reproductive technology law expert at Georgetown University’s Kennedy Institute for Ethics, told The Associated Press that the ruling was “disgusting and morally offensive.”
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Circuit Court Judge Richard Gardiner of Fairfax County, Virginia recently ruled that frozen embryos are legally considered property, making nineteenth-century laws regarding the treatment of slaves justified in his decision. used as gender. (Brian Dozier/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Gardiner’s decision is not final and has yet to rule on Honeyline and other arguments in the lawsuit involving Jason Heideman.
Honeyhline, 45, wants to use the embryos, but her ex-husband, Jason, is against it.
Initially, Gardiner sided with Jason. The law at the heart of the case prescribes how “goods and movable property” should be divided. The judge ruled that fertilized eggs could not be considered fertilized eggs because they could not be bought and sold, and that Honeyline had no legal recourse to claim custody of the fertilized eggs.
But after his ex-wife’s attorney, Adam Kronfeld, asked the judge to reconsider, Gardiner delved into the history of the law. The judge then examined old rulings that governed custody battles involving slaves and said he found similarities that forced him to reconsider whether the law should apply to embryos. rice field.
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A doctor removes the embryo sample from cryogenic storage. (Universal Images Group by Getty Images)
in separate parts his opinionGardiner also said he made a mistake when he first concluded that human embryos could not be sold.
“Since there is no prohibition on the sale of human embryos, they may be valued and sold, and thus may be considered ‘commodity or chattel,'” he writes.
Clockin said she doesn’t know of any other judge who has concluded that it is possible to buy and sell human embryos within the United States. He said he tends to recognize that it has to be treated in a way.
Fertilized embryos are stored in liquid nitrogen-filled tanks to keep them fresh in case the patient needs them at a later date. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
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Neither of the Heidemanns’ lawyers ever raised the issue of slavery. However, they have raised other arguments in support of their case.
Jason’s attorney said that allowing an ex-wife to transfer an embryo created at the time of marriage would “force Mr. It is a violation of rights,” he said.
Honeyhline’s lawyers argued that her rights to the embryo outweighed her ex-husband’s objections. One of her reasons is that he has no legal obligation to be a parent, and she has no other option to conceive a biological child after she has been infertile from cancer treatment. is.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
