I’d almost think this was a joke if the lawsuit weren’t real, and if there weren’t a more sinister prospect on the horizon. These guys may be anti-choice wingnuts but they are not stupid.
National anti-choice organizations have been filing lawsuits against California’s stem cell institute to prevent them from doing anything with donated blastocysts. The lawsuits are being consolidated to be heard by one judge in one county in order to expedite the process. The latest legal salvo is a federal lawsuit filed by the “National Association for the Advancement of Preborn Children” claiming the civil rights of blastocysts are violated by stem cell research.
Side note — Emphasis added for the NAAPC. *shakes head in disbelief*. Nice F-U to the civil rights movement there.
Back on topic — As much as this whole thing sounds absurd, I suspect that the ultimate goal here is not just to delay the CA stem cell institute, but also to keep on filing suits and appeals until they get to the Supreme Court. It’s not at all unrealistic to expect that in a year or two SCOTUS will have two new conservative Justices in place and presumably ready to cast a more favorable eye on suits like this.
The lawsuit claims the embryo is a person who should be given equal protection under the Constitution, and her destruction violates her right to freedom from slavery.
In decisions that have upheld the right of women to receive abortions, the Supreme Court has ruled that a woman’s right to control her body outweighs the early-stage fetus’s rights.
In his appeal of the initial federal case, lawyer R. Martin Palmer argues that Roe v. Wade does not apply in this case because the embryo is in deep freeze and not a mother’s womb.
Note the avoidance of Roe as precedent. These guys are clearly angling for an approach that will get around the issue of stare decisis with regard to Roe.
As the Bard said, “Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.” (Hamlet)
