I saw a posting on this in another forum. If stored embryos have the same status as living children, and the parents are paying a monthly fee to keep them in storage, then the parents are effectively providing financial support. This allows them to declare them as dependents on tax forms - state taxes, at least. If you have 15 embryos in storage, that's quite a deduction!
From the Alabama Department of Revenue web site:
A dependent as defined under Alabama law is an individual other than the taxpayer and his or her spouse who received over 50% of his or her support from the taxpayer during the tax year and is also related to the taxpayer in one of the following relationships: Son. Stepmother. Daughter.
But...the following passage also appears on the same page:
You can take an exemption for a dependent who was born or who died during the tax year if he or she met the qualifications for a dependent while alive. This means that a baby who lived only a few minutes can be claimed as a dependent.
So, this leaves the dickheads with a conflict: The tax law seems say that the child has to be born to qualify as a whole person for the purposes of taxes. But, the court ruling holds that an embryo is a whole person for the purposes of criminal prosecution for harm to a child or homicide.
Also, the statute says that the relationship must be son or daughter (among the other relationships). But, an embryo can't be sexed without destroying it. So, they'd have to revise the statute to say child. But, that would have them admitting that a human entity or specimen can be genderless!
Someone should try this at the state tax level and see how it turns out...and watch heads explode.
= new reply since forum marked as read
