A Virginia judge overseeing a dispute between a divorced couple cited a 19th-century law about slave ownership when ruling human embryos can be considered property.
The preliminary opinion last month by Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Richard Gardiner attempts to settle a dispute between Honeyhline Heidemann and Jason Heidemann, who divorced in 2018 and had previously agreed to own any stored embryos together.
Gardiner determined a law based on “goods or chattels” that preceded the Civil War regarding custody disputes over slaves was applicable to the couple’s fight over frozen embryos.
“As there is no prohibition on the sale of human embryos, they may be valued and sold, and thus may be considered goods or chattels,” Gardiner wrote in his opinion.
The judge could not be reached for comment Friday.
The divorced couple is feuding over two frozen embryos, that a separate agreement before their divorce determined would remain stored “pending a court order or further written agreement,” the opinion states.
The couple had previously conceived a daughter through in vitro fertilization, the opinion said.
Honeyhline Heidemann, 45, wants to use the embryos because she is infertile after cancer treatments, according to her attorney, Adam Kronfeld, the opinion said.
He also argued that in the initial separation agreement the couple signed in 2018, they already considered the embryos as property under an agreement titled “Division of Personal Property.”
Jason Heidemann objects at least partly because his “procreational autonomy” would be compromised, the ruling said.
Allowing his ex-wife to use embryos they created when they were married “would force Mr. Heidemann to procreate against his wishes and therefore violate his constitutional right to procreational autonomy,” the ruling said, citing his objection.
Gardiner had initially sided with him and determined embryos could not be bought or sold, and therefore, Honeyhline Heidemann had no right to them.
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