"A couple whose frozen embryo was accidentally destroyed at a fertility clinic has the right in Illinois to file a wrongful-death lawsuit, a judge has ruled in a case that some legal experts say could have implications in the debate over embryonic stem cell research.In an opinion issued Friday, Cook County Judge Jeffrey Lawrence said "a pre-embryo is a 'human being' … whether or not it is implanted in its mother's womb."
It's nice to see a story like this actually get some press coverage, even if it doesn't end up on any big-name front pages. I wouldn't think this lawsuit will get too far, but it has rattled a few cages and will help bring to light the human-embryonic research issue to the fore for many people again.
Another problem arises in this story: these people shouldn't be tampering with human life in this embryonic form anyways - see what the Catholic Church teaches about in-vitro fertilization.
At the bottom of the ABC News article, we find a comment from the ever-notorious ACLU:
"The decision could curb reproductive research, said Colleen Connell, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Chicago."
If it's wrong, don't do it. A lot of people don't seem to understand that embryonic stem cells have not yet yielded any positive research discoveries, whereas adult stem cell research has yielded plenty, and could yield more if researchers received more grant money (which is now taken by embryonic stem cell research).
What a strange world we live in, where people pour money into unproductive things and withold it from proven successes! (Now, there's obviously a little more to this debate, but the basic issue is the wrongness of the creation and destruction of human embryos.)