IVF and Abortion -- Two Sides of the Same Coin

Date of Event

4-1-2024

Description

In February of 2024, the Alabama Supreme Court issued an unprecedented decision, finding that frozen embryos should be treated as children under Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. Consequently, the court held, those who destroy the embryos can be held liable for wrongful death.

In this workshop, the speakers will first review the parameters of the Alabama decision. They will then address the relationship between the Alabama decision and the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which overturned the fundamental right to an abortion. In Dobbs, the Supreme Court returned the issue of abortion to the states, while recognizing the state’s legitimate interest in preserving “prenatal life at all stages of development,“ without regard to whether that life exists in utero or not. The Alabama decision provides more context about the reach of the Dobbs decision.

The speakers will also discuss relevant aspects and regulation of assisted reproductive technologies, like in vitro fertilization (IVF) to explain the potential impact of the Alabama decision. They will also discuss state and national efforts to protect the ability to build a family through IVF. Finally, they will explore connections between assisted reproductive technology and abortion, addressing broader social issues about the right to control one’s own fertility.

Speaker Bios

Naomi Cahn is the Justice Anthony M. Kennedy Distinguished Professor of Law and the Armistead M. Dobie Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law. She is an expert in family law, reproductive rights and justice, and aging and the law. Prior to joining the University of Virginia faculty in 2020, she taught at George Washington Law School, where she twice served as associate dean. She is the co-director of UVA Law’s Family Law Center.

Cahn is a co-author of casebooks in both family law and trusts and estates, and she has written numerous articles. In addition, she is the author or editor of books written for both academic and trade publishers. Her books include “Red Families v. Blue Families” (Oxford University Press, 2010, with Professor June Carbone): “Homeward Bound” (Oxford University Press, 2017, with Amy Ziettlow); and the forthcoming Fair Shake: Women & the Fight to Build a Just Economy (Simon & Schuster, 2024, with June Carbone and Nancy Levit) and Hot Flash: How the Law Ignores Menopause and What We Can Do (Stanford U Press, 2024, with Emily Gold Waldman and Bridget Crawford).

In 2017, Cahn won the Harry Krause Lifetime Achievement in Family Law Award from the University of Illinois College of Law. She has worked with the Uniform Law Commission as a reporter for two drafting committees. In addition to her work with the commission, Cahn is a member of the American Law Institute, an elected fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, editor of the ACTEC Law Journal and a member of the American Bar Foundation, among other commitments. She serves on the editorial board of the Family Court Review. Prior to joining the faculty at GW Law, Cahn practiced with Hogan Lovells in Washington, D.C., and with Community Legal Services in Philadelphia.

Sonia M. Suter is the co-director of the GW Health Law & Policy Program, Professor of Law and Kahan Family Research Professor, The Henry St. George Tucker III Dean's Research Professor of Law, and Founding Director of the Health Law Initiative. Her scholarship focuses on issues at the intersection of law, medicine, and bioethics, with a particular focus on reproductive rights, emerging reproductive technologies, and ethical and legal issues in genetics. She has published widely in law reviews, peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journals, and science journals. One of her recent articles was selected for Editors' Choice 2020 by the Journal of Law and the Biosciences, one of the leading peer-reviewed journals in medical ethics and legal medicine. Another was chosen by the same journal’s editorial team as one of its “favorite widely read and cited articles” that has “made a big impact.” An internationally recognized expert in genetics and the law and assisted reproductive technologies, Professor Suter is a co-author of the leading textbooks in those areas. She also participates in national working groups and advisory boards and as a consultant to policymakers on issues in her field of expertise. At GW Law, she teaches Torts, Law and Medicine, Genetics and the Law and Assisted Reproductive Technologies.

Before coming to GW Law, Professor Suter held a Greenwall Fellowship in Bioethics and Health Policy at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities. She was also a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan Law School and an adjunct at Georgetown University Law Center.

Prior to law school, Professor Suter earned a master’s degree and achieved PhD candidacy in human genetics from the University of Michigan. Thereafter, she worked as a genetic counselor in obstetrics and pediatrics at Henry Ford Hospital. While attending the University of Michigan Law School, she served as the Executive Articles Editor of the Michigan Law Review and earned the Henry M. Bates Memorial Scholarship, the highest law school award. After graduating from law school, Professor Suter clerked for Judge John M. Walker, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Suggested Readings

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/alabama-ivf-supreme-court-consequences-rcna140004 https://theconversation.com/most-state-abortion-bans-have-limited-exceptions-but-its-hard-to-understand-what-they-mean-221389

Lecture Series

Elena and Miles Zaremski Law-Medicine Forum

Subject Headings

IVF; abortion; reproductive rights

Location

CWRU School of Law Moot Courtroom (A59)

Document Type

Video

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