The Georgia State Senate was defeated last month in its attempts to forever alter the classification of an embryo. If Senate Bill 169 had passed, an embryo, even one created through IVF, would have been considered a biological human being. The bill did not pass, but the consequences for all families who are undergoing infertility treatments could have been dire. The language of the bill read thus: any embryo created through IVF “shall not be intentionally destroyed for any purpose and by any person” and “is not the property of any person or entity.”

So, let’s say you lived in Georgia, and were undergoing IVF. During your first cycle, 8 embryos were created, but you had only 3 of them transferred. Let’s say all 3 took, and you delivered healthy triplets. You and your husband decided your family was complete. What would happen to your other 5 embryos?  Well, according to this bill, your embryos are no longer yours. In fact, you could not decide what would happen to them if you chose not to have them implanted. Your embryos would become wards of the state. The bill would have given embryos the same rights as living children.

Now, I am not making any religious statements about when life begins. But in the case of IVF, we all know that no matter how many embryos are transferred, sometimes none of them are genetically capable of developing into a viable pregnancy. No one knows which embryos created during IVF could possibly become a living-breathing child, or doctors would simply implant the ones that would “take”. So to give all embryos an equal status with the rights of a child does not make sense.

And where was the State suggesting all these additional embryos be stored for time in memoriam? The cost of keeping an unknown number of embryos in storage for an undetermined amount of time could send an IVF clinic into bankruptcy. And what would happen to the embryos then? If the clinic could not or did not want to keep the embryos, and they cannot destroy them, they would have to turn them over to the state...

How would you feel if you knew your 5 embryos were going to be given to another couple because the state wouldn’t let them be destroyed, so they were “put up for adoption”. This is not so far fetched. When the state takes control of other unwanted children, they are placed in foster care, until they are adopted. Your embryos could have been treated the same as any other “unwanted” child.

I am presenting the scary. alarmist "what if's" just to underscore how important it is that we all pay attention to what laws are being passed in our country. The bill was real, and on the floor...that part is not conjecture. I am just playing Devil's advocate...what if it had passed? How much farther reaching could this go?  And if you think you are safe because you don’t live in Georgia, think again. All it would take is one single state passing a bill like this and it would set precedent. It would make it all that much easier for the next state to pass this type of legislation, and so on. I am relieved to know that the infertility and reproductive community in Georgia stood strong and fought this bill, and defeated it.