After discussing his deep dislike for chimpanzees, this episode focuses on the recent ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court determining that under Alabama law the human embryo in vitro (in glass) is considered a child just as a human embryo in vivo (in the living) is under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.
The ruling is addressed with a focus on three main points:
1) The Supreme Court of Alabama did not declare the embryo is a child. Alabama law already does that. It declared in vitro embryos could not be excluded from recognition by virtue of their location. Whether in vitro or in vivo, a human embryo is a human child.
2) The definition of human child offered in the decision is not unclear. Immediate human progeny is a child at every stage of its development. Unlike the term baby, this isn’t confusing or emotional. The case offers multiple definitions to clarify what it means when the law states an embryo is a child.
3) One concurring opinion discusses the sanctity of life in theological terms. The majority decision does not mention religious reasons for the decision. The headlines and handwringing over religious interference is misplaced.
In short, before people get hysterical online and panic, they ought to actually read the legal decisions the press is doing such a shoddy job describing.
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