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Wrongful Death Suit Allowed over Embryo

By Dee McAree
March 30, 2005

A Chicago judge has ruled that a husband and wife will be allowed to proceed with a wrongful death suit against a fertility clinic that allegedly inadvertently discarded their fertilized egg. Lawyers say courts have previously considered cases involving embryos to be property rights or negligence claims, but a wrongful death action presents a new issue that could affect abortion law, stem cell research, genetic testing and a wide range of other issues. “Calling this a wrongful death is a new frontier for the judiciary,” said Andrew Worek, a medical malpractice defense lawyer with Philadelphia's Weber Gallagher Simpson Stapleton Fires & Newby. Worek has written about the legal issues surrounding pre-embryonic human cells. “In the past, they have been handled as property or negligence cases.”

The Suit

The Chicago lawsuit, Miller v. American Infertility Group, is one of first impression in Illinois, and only Rhode Island has seen a similar case, according to the couple's lawyer, James Costello, of Chicago's Costello McMahon & Burke.

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