Tennessee bill could have endangered IVF with controversial amendment stating life begins at fertilization
An IVF protection bill that faced a proposed amendment attempting to add the definition that life begins at fertilization would have endangered IVF (in vitro fertilization) and other fertility treatment options in Tennessee. However, after considerable opposition to the amendment, including from the Tennessee Medical Association, it was tabled and the IVF protection bill has passed the House. The bill will be combined with a similar Senate bill that has passed.
TRM’s Dr. Jessica Scotchie spoke to the Chattanooga Times Free Press about the damage the tabled amendment could have created by making IVF a lot more difficult for patients to pursue in the state. “So if there’s now a law in Tennessee that an embryo is considered a human being, you can’t throw away human beings,” Dr. Scotchie said of IVF embryos not used for a pregnancy. “Are they going to then force these couples to use abnormal embryos?”
She said people end up using most of their embryos created through IVF. Dr. Scotchie said that if the amendment had been part of the bill and it passed, IVF clinics across the state would cease IVF until they had protections to be able to continue practicing fertility treatments.
“Maybe they don’t understand that we all have the same reverence for the beauty of human life and the desire to try to create as much life as we can help our patients create,” said Dr. Scotchie of those in fertility medicine. “I think there’s a misconception that there’s bad players in the field that are not being respectful of the idea of life and these embryos, and that couldn’t be further from the truth.”
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