Virginia slave laws inform judge's ruling on frozen embryos
A judge at the Fairfax County, Va., Courthouse, seen here on Tuesday, March 7, 2023, has ruled that frozen embryos can legally be considered property or"chattel," basing his opinion in part on how state law treated slaves before the Civil War. The ruling by Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Richard Gardiner is being criticized by some lawyers for wrongly and unnecessarily delving into precedents from a time in Virginia history when it was legally permissible to own human beings.
Solomon Ashby, president of the Old Dominion Bar Association, a professional organization made up primarily of African American lawyers, called Gardiner’s ruling troubling.Gardiner did not return a call to his chambers Wednesday. His decision, issued last month, is not final: He has not yet ruled on other arguments in the case involving Honeyhline and Jason Heidemann, a divorced couple fighting over two frozen embryos that remain in storage.Initially, Gardiner sided with Jason Heidemann.
Crockin said she’s not aware of any other judge in the U.S. who has concluded that human embryos can be bought and sold. She said the trend, if anything, has been to recognize that embryos have to be treated in a more nuanced way than as mere property. Neither of the Heidemanns' lawyers ever raised the slavery issue. They did raise other arguments in support of their cases, however.
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