In divorces, who has control of embryos?
State law may soon dictate who has the right to their own frozen embryos, regardless of what the potential parents think.
In cases of divorce, Senate Bill 1393 would require courts to give frozen embryos to the spouse who “intends to allow the embryos to develop to birth.”
If both adults want to use the embryos to have a baby, the court would have to give them to the one who “provides the best chance” of successfully doing so.
The bill, which has passed the Senate and now just needs a final vote in the House before going to the governor, would override any agreements or contracts that the couple previously
had on the matter, and would ignore either person’s current objections or concerns.
It also outlines that the spouse who does not receive the embryos would not have parental rights or responsibilities to any resulting children unless they agree to them.
Advocates say the law would clarify how to handle frozen embryos if a couple separates and protect the partners’ right to their embryos. Opponents say it would interfere in infertility treatment, could force exes to become parents against their will, and is a back-door way to change the legal definition of personhood in Arizona.
Last year, a judge ruled during divorce proceedings that although Phoenix lawyer Ruby Torres wanted children, the seven frozen embryos she created with her ex-husband would be donated instead.
Torres and her ex-husband did in vitro fertilization after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, but her husband filed for divorce after she became healthy again and told the court he did not want children with her.
She said the embryos were her last chance at having biological children, but the judge ruled that evidence favored Terrell’s right not to be a parent over Torres’ desire to have a biological child.
The influential Center for Arizona Policy, an anti-abortion advocacy group, is pushing the legislation.
“A spouse in Ruby’s position should not lose his or her embryos simply because the other spouse no longer wants to be a parent,” the center’s website states.
During a public hearing Wednesday before the House Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, Republican Reps. Paul Boyer, Eddie Farnsworth, Mark Finchem, Anthony Kern, David Stringer and Maria Syms voted in favor of the bill, while Democratic Reps. Kirsten Engel, Sally Ann Gonzales and Daniel Hernandez voted against it.
Before the hearing, Barbara Collura, president and CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, said in a statement that the organization opposes the bill.
“If SB 1393 were to pass, this would be a gross overreach of the Arizona state government into private medical decisions. State legislatures should be solving problems; this bill is not a solution and would instead create more problems for patients who need medical help to have a baby,” she wrote. Republic reporter Ken Alltucker contributed to this story.