4 ms·

Under what circumstances is it legal to freeze a child in Alabama? More importantly, why?

• acdha 3y ago
  Is it specifically not legal? What’s illegal is _harming_ a child, but that doesn’t mean a non-harmful process would be illegal if someone suddenly developed, say, a way to safely freeze someone with an incurable disease or in a hypothetical emergency scenario where you needed more time to treat them. That might seem pedantic but it’s a key distinction because IVF doesn’t involve freezing embryos because the manufacturers of medical freezers need the money but for medically-necessary purposes. Retrieving things like eggs and sperm is difficult and like any medical procedure involves risk to the parent; freezing allows those risks to be taken only once for multiple attempts. Freezing also allows screening for genetic and structural defects and, of course, it avoids endangering the mother and children trying to do everything all at once – the risks go up significantly starting from twins. So restating your question: would it be legal to freeze a child in Alabama to protect them from harm if we had a way to do that which is as safe as IVF? Of course, just as we recognize the difference between “cutting a child with a knife” and “saving their life with a surgical procedure”.