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Unborn in the USA
Posted By Stefan Monsaureus
Kristen Philipkoski, on Wired Science, writes that a lawyer will represent an unborn embryo in federal court in a few days, in a largely procedural hearing on jurisdictional issues. The suit was filed against the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine by attorney Martin Palmer, on behalf of the National Association for the Advancement of Preborn Children, an organization he founded. According to the complaint (in PDF format):
This is an action for declaratory, injunctive and other necessary and appropriate relief, brought under the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2201 et seq., seeking (a) the entry of a declaratory judgment that (i) Plaintiff Mary Scott Doe, a human embryo and a developing human life, is a person “born” in, and a citizen of, the United States of America within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment and a “party” within the meaning of the Thirteenth Amendment, (ii) is entitled to due process and the equal protection of the laws and to be free from slavery and involuntary servitude, as guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Thirteenth Amendments, and (iii) that the Defendants’ proposed and imminent actions of funding and otherwise facilitating, assisting or encouraging human embryo stem cell experimentation or somatic cell nuclear transfer (the methodology of cloning), which will result in her and other human embryos’ certain and sudden death and destruction, will violate the due process and equal protection guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment, and further will violate the Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibition against slavery and involuntary servitude;
According to Calfornia Institute of Regenerative Medicine spokesman Dave Carlson, interviewed by Philipkoski:
Obviously we find the argument to be without merit, and frankly somewhat specious. Palmer appears to have been involved in a number of cases on behalf of pro-life organizations and it appears what they’re trying to do is establish as a matter of federal law that a human embryo is the same as a person, which obviously has some implications for a range of different issues.
While this seems ridiculous on its face, in a land where we have an Unborn Victims of Violence Act signed by the President, it takes but a few mental maneuvers to imagine litigation like this eventually making its way to a sympathetic court, with ramifications far more severe than the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Thankfully, there’s an election year on the horizon.
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13 October 2007
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