Rita Lowery Gitchell, who is special counsel for the Thomas More Society, examines the issue of when human life begins in her opinion piece for Law360. Gitchell’s experience in the debate stems from her role in two frozen embryo storage disputes in California and Missouri. The California case involved a couple no longer agreeing on the use of frozen embryos after ending their relationship, and the Missouri case involved  a couple who used in vitro fertilization (IVF) to create four human embryos. Two embryos were implanted and were successfully developed and born. The two additional embryos remained unused due to the end of the couple’s marriage and their inability to agree on how to treat the embryos.

Gitchell demonstrates in her opinion piece when human life begins by emphasizing the following key points:

1. A new human organism comes into being at the moment of fertilization.
2. The scientific fact that human embryos are human beings with full potential to complete life’s cycle, not potential human life.
3. A court’s decision that led to the acceptance of clinic forms mislabeling human embryos as cells, tissue, or property.
4. Using contract principles to dispose of human embryos treats the embryos as mere property and disregards the rights of the embryos and the rights of their parents.
5. Courts should review and discard legal precedents based on earlier misconceptions of the nature of human embryos.

To read Rita Lowery Gitchell’s full op-ed piece in Law360, click here.