Commonwealth Policy Center

A new bill in the Kentucky Senate would protect access to assisted reproduction methods like in vitro fertilization (IVF). Sen. Cassie Armstrong (D-Louisville) has proposed SB 301 as a response to the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling that said frozen embryos are human. Procedures like IVF often involve the selection of one embryo and the freezing of many others, and often the  “excess” embryos are discarded. IVF has helped many parents conceive children but, when technology made IVF possible, little thought was given to the moral considerations of people created in test tubes, frozen in storage facilities, and eventually fought over in court. If the Alabama Supreme Court is right, those tiny embryos are humans and therefore should be protected by law.