A Louisiana Senate judiciary committee has passed a law that would give an embryo the right to sue from the point of conception on. SB 225, which now goes to the Senate floor, would give an embryo “from the moment of conception ‘the same rights a natural person would have’ when it comes to lawsuits.”
The bill was spurred by a case in which a couple sought compensation for the pain and suffering of a stillborn child. The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that the parents could sue for these damages, but that the stillborn could not.
The Louisiana Maternal and Child Health Coalition and the Louisiana State Medical Society, both oppose the bill, arguing that it would “make physicians more wary of handling high-risk pregnancies” and would dramatically increase the cost of medical malpractice insurance.
