Alabama court rules frozen embryos are children. What this could mean for IVF

On Wednesday, the University of Alabama Birmingham hospital paused in vitro fertilization treatments while it considers the ruling's significance.

The Alabama Supreme Court recently ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, raising concerns about how the decision could affect in vitro fertilization, commonly known as IVF.

The decision issued in wrongful death cases brought by couples who had frozen embryos destroyed in an accident could potentially leave clinics vulnerable to lawsuits and restrict access to treatment. On Wednesday, the University of Alabama Birmingham hospital paused IVF treatments while it considers the ruling’s significance.

Here’s what to know about this increasingly common fertility treatment.

In vitro fertilization offers a possible solution when a woman has trouble getting pregnant. It involves retrieving her eggs and combining them in a lab dish with a man’s sperm to create a fertilized embryo, which is then transferred into the woman’s uterus in an attempt to create a pregnancy.

IVF is done in cycles and may take more than one to create a successful pregnancy, according to The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The procedure can use a couple’s eggs and sperm or those from a donor.

The treatment often uses hormones to trigger ovulation so multiple eggs are produced and a needle is used to remove them from the ovaries, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said.

Eggs can be fertilized by adding the sperm to the eggs in a lab, or a single sperm can be injected into each egg.

“We culture that fertilized egg over a period of time — usually five to six days —- to create developmental stages called the blastocyst. And those are either transferred or stored for future use,” said Dr. Jason Griffith, a reproductive endocrinologist in Houston.