Court rules wrongful death does not cover in vitro embryos

A state court ruled Friday that a couple cannot sue for wrongful death for a fertility clinic's destruction of their embryos.

The ruling by an Illinois appellate court overturns a 2005 ruling by a Cook County judge.

The decision revolves around the case of a Chicago couple, Allison Miller and Todd Parrish. In January of 2000, they created and stored nine embryos through in vitro fertilization at the Center for Human Reproduction in Chicago.

In June, when they called to transfer the embryos to another facility, they were told the embryos had been destroyed.

The couple sued under the Wrongful Death Act.

After two judges had denied the claim, Cook County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Lawrence reversed their decisions, and ruled that the couple could sue under the statute.

The Wrongful Death Act provides for monetary compensation from someone who harms a fetus in the womb by an attack or accident, other than someone performing an abortion with the mother's consent.

However, Illinois Appellate Court Justice Margaret O'Mara Frossard ruled, the act does not address in vitro fertilization and preservation of embryos outside the womb. That could only be addressed through further action by lawmakers, not by judges, she ruled.

Attorneys in the case were not immediately available for comment.

Former Illinois state Sen. Mark Rhoads of Western Springs had led the writing of an amendment to the act. Rhoads, who now lives in Virginia, has acknowledged the law did not address stored embryos, though he had agreed with Judge Lawrence's previous ruling.