On June 1, 2016, a St. Louis appellate court will hear oral arguments in a controversial embryo custody case, McQueen v. Gadberry, involving a Saint Louis immigration attorney, her military ex-husband and their cryo-preserved children – two embryonic siblings of their young twin sons.  Thomas More Society attorneys will be on hand representing Missouri Right to Life, Lawyers for Life and the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, who collectively filed an amici curiae (friends of the court) brief asserting the scientific fact that embryos are human beings, not property.

The case has gained national attention because it presents a situation where science has outpaced the law.

Thomas More Society Special Counsel Rita Lowery Gitchell explained:

“Currently, the legal precedent dealing with frozen embryos is based on erroneous and misconceived ‘science’ which denies the intrinsic humanity of the human embryos, treats them as mere property, and subjects them to disposition according to the terms of private contracts to which they were neither parties nor participants in the bargaining process.  Human embryos, no matter how small, are fully human and deserve to be treated as such.”

She added, “It is high time for courts to recognize, accept and take judicial notice of the most recent findings of biological and ancillary branches of science, to the effect that human life begins at fertilization, when the sperm and egg bind, and when a specific DNA is forged that is unique to that particular human being, and shared by no other, excepting an identical twin.”

The Thomas More Society has filed similar friend of the court briefs in connection with disputes between mothers and fathers of frozen embryos in Illinois and California. This issue has received attention in the national media including a New York Times article on January 20, 2016 available here.

Read the Thomas More Society’s amicus brief submitted in McQueen v. Gadberry here.