The decision of the Alabama Supreme Court in LaPage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine, allowing the parents whose embryos were kept in a cryogenic nursery and were negligently destroyed to sue the company that had control of them, is a fair result. Although there is language in the opinion for the court, as well as in the concurring opinions, that has caused considerable and justified concern, the court’s conclusion that the parents have a valid legal claim should be embraced and not be the subject of mass criticism.
Let’s start with some easy cases. A child is born and while in the hospital, a doctor’s negligence causes the infant’s death. Leaving aside the question of damages, it is not a hard decision to allow the parents to sue the parties that caused that death even if the child is just two days old. Now move the hypothetical back to the moment of birth, or to two months before that: is there any reason to deny those parents the same right to sue, again putting aside the question of what is an appropriate level of compensation owed?
