In the text that reflects on the “sanctity of unborn life,” based on a biblical quote, these phrases are included:
“The life of a human being cannot be unjustly destroyed without incurring the wrath of the sacred God, who sees the destruction of his image as an affront to himself,” he notes. “Even before they are born, all human beings are the image of God and their lives cannot be destroyed without erasing his glory,” he adds.
Although it may seem like it, this passage is not part of the meditation of some pastor of one of those Christian nationalist churches of the American extreme right that have made abortion at the moment of conception an argument for political combat. No. Those quotes are signed by Judge Tom Parker, Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, in a clear demonstration of the submission of earthly power and 21st century science to the design of the Almighty.
The highest judicial body of this state has issued an unprecedented ruling, possibly mandatory reading on Sundays in the pulpits of those temples, which exceeds all limits in a matter as controversial as the interruption of pregnancy, when the pregnancy does not even exist, it is not a word game.
In its ruling (by eight to one), the Alabama High Court determined that frozen embryos, used for in vitro fertilization, are already people, they are already children under state law, and therefore their destruction may mean facing criminal charges. .
This decision jeopardizes the fertility treatments of hundreds of thousands of patients who resort to and depend on this method, in addition to posing a threat to the survival of clinics, reproductive rights advocates argued.
Alabama is a scene of biblical contradictions as well. The justice of that State believes that “annihilating” a frozen embryo, when it is stored and has not even reached the womb of a woman, means destroying the image of God. On the other hand, this same state was the first last month to execute the execution of a prisoner with nitrogen gas, a method that is not even used on animals except pigs. There is always the theological resource that the executed criminal was the image of the devil.
Alabama thus becomes the first state to take this step of the eleven that define paternity in their laws from the moment of fertilization, although none had dared to go that far. Critics fear the resolution opens the door for others to follow that path.
It all started in December 2020. Three couples had their embryos preserved in a clinic in the city of Mobile. Things were going well until another patient had access to the cryogenic nursery, due to an alleged lack of security, and manipulated several embryos. Due to the impact on his hands of the low storage temperatures, those embryos fell to the ground, “killing” them according to judicial language.
These families filed a lawsuit for “wrongful death.” In the first instance, the judges denied the claim. It couldn't happen because those frozen embryos didn't fit the definition of a person or a child.
But this Supreme Court has amended the rules for the judges. It maintains that children “located outside the biological womb at the time of death” fall under “the state law of wrongful death of a minor.”
This has caused great confusion, concern and indignation in general and specifically among couples who resort to in vitro fertilization as the best resource for pregnancy. Alabama prohibits abortion practically from conception without considering exceptions for rape or incest. It has even arrested women who abort or put the fetus at risk.
The irony is that the complaining couples, concerned about the fate of their embryos, have opened the thunder and have made it now much more difficult for women who struggle to conceive naturally to achieve it.
