A long-running legal battle in Virginia for the control of two embryos following a divorce has reached another milestone. Mrs Heidemann sought to use the frozen embryos, created using her eggs and her husband's sperm, to have another child after chemotherapy left her infertile. Her husband did not want the embryos used.
A lower court previously ruled that the embryos could treated as property and divided between the couple. However, Judge Dontaè Bugg disagreed in a recent opinion letter, and recommended the suit should be dismissed. He said, '...the human embryos at issue in this matter are not goods or chattels subject to partition under the Virginia partition statutes.'
The Texas Supreme Court may hear a similar case, involving another divorced couple who disagreed over whether the embryos they created together should be considered property or unborn children (see BioNews 1239).
For more information, please see Reason.