Fairfax County judge Dontaè L. Bugg has written an opinion letter ruling that frozen embryos are not property that can be divided between parties, AP News has reported. Bugg’s decision comes almost 10 months after closing arguments in a trial between a divorced couple over the ownership of two embryos.
The judge’s decision rejected a previous analysis by the court that fertilized eggs could be considered divisible “goods or chattel” based on 19th-century slave law. “Unlike divisible assets, such as land or financial instruments, human embryos are unique biological entities,” Bugg wrote.
Trial Over Frozen Embryos
Honeyhline Heidemann sued her ex-husband, Jason Heidemann, over access to two embryos they froze during in vitro fertilization treatments in 2015. The couple have a daughter conceived during the same treatment cycle. They divorced three years later.
Honeyhline sued for access to the two remaining frozen embryos. She said that cancer treatment had made her infertile, and the embryos were her last chance of conceiving a biological child. But Jason’s attorney stated that he did not want to become a biological father to another child, even if he wasn’t required to be a legal parent to the child.
Honeyhline testified that she hoped to be granted both remaining embryos. But she said she would also accept separating them and granting ownership of one to her and one to Jason.
Before this lawsuit, there was little case law in Virginia governing the treatment of frozen embryos. Last year, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are people.
“It is obvious that these two human embryos, if implanted and carried to term, would not result in the same two people,” Bugg wrote. “In fact, the embryos are as unique as any two people that may be selected from the population, including siblings with the same biological parents.”
Feature image, stock.adobe.com
