Virginia judge uses slavery law to rule frozen embryos are property

[avebury]

https://www.wfla.com/nextstar-news-wire/virginia-judge-uses-slavery-law-to-rule-frozen-embryos-are-property/amp/

Initially, Gardiner sided with Jason Heidemann. The law at the heart of the case governs how to divide “goods and chattels.” The judge ruled that because embryos could not be bought or sold, they couldn’t be considered as such and therefore Honeyhline Heidemann had no recourse under that law to claim custody of them.

But after the ex-wife’s lawyer, Adam Kronfeld, asked the judge to reconsider, Gardiner conducted a deep dive into the history of the law. He found that before the Civil War, it also applied to slaves. The judge then researched old rulings that governed custody disputes involving slaves, and said he found parallels that forced him to reconsider whether the law should apply to embryos.

In a separate part of his opinion, Gardiner also said he erred when he initially concluded that human embryos cannot be sold.

“As there is no prohibition on the sale of human embryos, they may be valued and sold, and thus may be considered ‘goods or chattels,’” he wrote.

Crockin said she’s not aware of any other judge in the U.S. who has concluded that human embryos can be bought and sold. She said the trend, if anything, has been to recognize that embryos have to be treated in a more nuanced way than as mere property.

[malaise]

1. WTF? Get thee to the greatest page

Important

[Irish_Dem]

2. Wouldn't this mean a fetus is property too?

[Lovie777]

3. Yes...........

[Hortensis]

5. :) Yes. I can't see how this wouldn't outrage everyone.

With so many so eager to leap to outrage these days, we may have a surge in head injuries from people bouncing off their ceilings.

[bluesbassman]

4. This judge is using a slave law to assert this man's "procreational autonomy".

So much wrong here. SMDH

[sarisataka]

6. Wouldn't the other option

To be declared the embryos are people so cannot be considered property?

[Hortensis]

7. Wonder if he wants to stir things up with an interest to better define

the legalities of this complex issue in our era -- or is just getting senile.

Those imagining this means Judge Gardiner is endorsing slavery (probably not! ) should note that the embryos were listed as personal property in the initial legal separation agreement.

That probably happens a whole LOT. Where else do they go? But that doesn't sound right. At all. We're not talking about who gets the blue lamps here.

This categorization should have a legal basis in law, and apparently he had to go all the way back to the slave era for justification for dumping embryos into personal property with their cookware.

[The Magistrate]

8. Jesus Fucking Christ

"Ignorance can learn, but stupid stays stupid, even pills can't help."

[sanatanadharma]

9. Embrios can be valued and exchanged, bought and sold; Humans can not

By this ruling, embryos are not human beings and thus have no Constitutional right to life.

This upturns the entire abortion argument.

Stored embryos upturn the entire religious argument against abortion.

[eppur_se_muova]

10. Next "logical" step: Women carrying fetuses are property, too. nt