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Wrongful Death Suit Allowed over Embryo

By Dee McAree
August 30, 2005

Earlier this year, a Chicago judge 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

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