Oct 13, 2008 / 23:01 pm
The Oregon Court of Appeals in a Wednesday decision denied a father’s appeal to keep his six frozen embryos alive. The court, ruling that the issue is a matter of private property, declared that the embryos be destroyed by thawing, as ordered by his ex-wife.
In a unanimous decision, the court ruled that the father, Dr. Darrell Angle, had no right to “impose a genetic parental relationship” on his ex-wife, Dr. Laura Dahl. According to LifeSiteNews, she did not wish to be considered the mother of the pre-born children in the event that they were carried to term.
Angle argued that the embryos were alive and deserved to be protected from destruction.
The couple married in 2000 and gave birth to a son. In 2004 they decided to conceive again through in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). The treatment failed, leaving six embryos frozen for preservation. The couple had signed an agreement naming Dahl the default decision-maker concerning the embryos, should the couple separate.