Embryo Custody Case

‍Thomas More Society attorneys are asking the Connecticut Supreme Court to examine the scientific facts in an April 30, 2019, hearing in an embryo custody case that will determine the fate of a divorcing couple’s cryogenically preserved offspring. Representing the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists, the not-for-profit Thomas More Society is making the following arguments for preserving the life of frozen embryos at the center of Jessica Bilbao v. Timothy R. Goodwin.

The Connecticut Supreme Court is reviewing the findings of the lower court, which awarded the couple’s not-yet-implanted embryos to the mother, who wishes to have them destroyed. The Thomas More Society will argue that the lower court erred when it used the legal standard that judges apply when dividing the property of divorcing couples, rather than the legal standard used when awarding child custody, because the court ignored the proven scientific fact that human embryos are human beings, and that the father has a constitutional right to protect the lives of his offspring.

Doctors Weigh in on Embryo Custody Case

The 4,600 members of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists and the national public interest lawyers of the Thomas More Society are urging the state supreme court not to follow the outdated case precedent upon which the lower court relied. That case, Davis v. Davis, decided by the Tennessee Supreme Court almost 30 years ago, predates modern science’s time-lapse photography and filming of human development that clearly reveals an embryo’s humanity from fertilization forward. To classify the embryos as property is contrary to the 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The brief also points out that the court is not responsible for the fact of the parents’ deliberate creation of the embryos in question. The court has the ability to terminate legal parenthood but can never terminate an already existing genetic parenthood, nor can it ignore the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, which grants Timothy Goodwin the right to protect his offspring.

Rita Gitchell, Thomas More Society Special Counsel, is working with co-counsel Phil Walker and Joanne Davis, to represent the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists in the filing. Gitchell noted that this case should not be considered as a divorce case with controversy over marital property, but rather a parental custody dispute – one with life or death implications. The father filed his lawsuit to protect the embryos from death. When parents disagree about a child’s fate, decisions are made in the best interest of the child. An embryo’s best interests should be weighed on the scales of justice.

“The mother of these cryogenically preserved embryos wants them destroyed, stating that she doesn’t want her embryos to be ‘placed for adoption by strangers.’ The father, whose position we are supporting, wishes the lives of his offspring to be spared, in case the couple would reconcile, or alternatively, for the embryos to be adopted by another family,” explained Gitchell. “The lower court’s reliance on an outdated legal case to decide this matter ignores both science and the necessity for the law to keep pace with the facts of life.”

“Science proves that embryonic humans are unique developing individuals, each deserving full protection of the law,” Gitchell added. “Today there are observable scientific facts known about differences in the behavior and composition of individual cells in human embryos prior to the 8-cell stage of development and prior to implantation in the womb. As human beings, human embryos are protected under the 13th Amendment. These human embryos are human lives at an identifiable stage of human development with full potential until death – not potential life, as some have erroneously reported."

Gitchell said: "These little ones have no voice. It is up to us to speak on their behalf, to ensure that they are protected under the law.”

Read the brief that the Thomas More Society filed on behalf of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists with the Supreme Court of the State of Connecticut on April 22, 2019, in Jessica Bilbao v. Timothy R. Goodwin, here.