For too long, the fertility industry in the United States has functioned like the Wild West. Few federal laws regulate in vitro fertilization treatments, and only a handful of state laws—such as Louisiana's embryo protection law and Colorado's ban on anonymous egg and sperm donation—address the moral and ethical questions raised by the artificial creation of human life.A landmark decision by the Alabama Supreme Court could change all of this.
As Chief Justice Tom Parker points out in his concurring opinion,Although it is for the Legislature to decide how to address this issue, I note briefly that many other Westernized countries have adopted IVF practices or regulations that allow IVF to continue while drastically reducing the chances of embryos being killed, whether in the creation process, the implantation process, the freezing process, or by willful killing when they become inconvenient.