Texas Supreme Court considering taking question of whether frozen embryos should be treated as people

[RandySF]

The Texas Supreme Court is considering whether to take up a case that could have Alabama-esque impacts on in vitro fertilization in Texas.

What began as a Denton divorce has grown into a larger battle over whether a frozen embryo can be defined as a person. The court has not yet said whether it will take up the case, which centers on three frozen embryos created by Caroline and Gaby Antoun.

Before beginning IVF, the couple signed an agreement saying Gaby Antoun, the husband, would get any remaining frozen embryos in case of a divorce. A trial court and appeals court have upheld the contract, citing long-standing legal precedent that embryos are quasi-property that can be governed by a contract.

But Caroline Antoun, the wife, argues that Texas’ new abortion laws require frozen embryos to be treated as people and handled through the child custody process instead.

“Now that Roe is no longer law, the Court has the opportunity to reclassify embryos as unborn children rather than property, and to, after far too long, recognize and protect the rights of those unborn children and their parents,” her lawyers, who declined to comment for this story, wrote in their petition for review to the Texas Supreme Court.





https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/13/texas-supreme-court-frozen-embryos-ivf/

[Voltaire2]

1. They've lost their fucking minds.

[Mad_Machine76]

2. Oh brother

I almost really lost my mind when I thought it was SCOTUS who was going to take up the case.

[Freethinker65]

3. Will be a rush to create more frozen embryos to get more congressional House seats

Embryos housed in facilities in Democratic metro areas will cause those areas to obviously get more Taxpayer State money because they will need to be added to population counts. Are the embryos considered children? Even more State money to those areas. Who gets to claim the tax deductions?

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Every womb a population center, lots of child support there

https://www.clearblue.com/ovulation/how-many-eggs-do-i-have

Though 100s of eggs start together, only one wins the race to be ovulated. The other eggs will die away. Over the course of a lifetime your ovaries will release about 500 eggs in their mature form. When the supply of eggs runs out, your ovaries cease to make estrogen, and you will go through the menopause. For most women this happens around the age of 50: the average age in the developed world is 51.4 years1. From this point onwards you will no longer be able to get pregnant naturally.

[CottonBear]

5. FFS. Frozen embryos are not people.

Babies cannot be frozen and stored in a deep freeze to be revived later.

[atreides1]

6. Child custody?

Which parent will get the "triplets" for Christmas, what about birthdays and summer vacation?

These people are fucking insane, and I include the wife in that description!!!

[Ping Tung]

7. If the teeny weeny embreos stay in the freezer for 18 years will they eligible to vote when thawed?

Will they have to carry some sort of identity (with photo)when they're carried to the polls in a test-tube?

Will they have to sign anything?

[poozwah]

8. texass

the mess that is taxes, ooops, texas.

[JT45242]

9. So... does this mean she wants them back or she wants to avoid paying child support to him

If he finds a surrogate, she would currently be off the hook for child support. If they rule that they are people, she would then have to pay child support for the kid(s).

Is she using this as a way to renogotiate their divorce/pre-embryo agreement.

Or option 3 -- they want to screw over as many people as possible because of their desire for a theocratic state.

Apparently, the woman does not realize that in the theocratic state, she will revert to chattel as they reverse the 19th amendment and all the equality laws of the late 20th century.