Paul Smith A SUPREME Court in the US has ruled

that frozen embryos created through IVF should be considered “ extrauterine children ” and therefore potentially subject to wrongful death lawsuits if an egg is destroyed .

Back in 2020 , a patient at the Center for Reproductive Medicine in Alabama went into the clinic ’ s cryogenic storage area and removed several embryos .

The sub-zero temperatures at which they had been stored burnt the

patient ’ s hand , causing them to drop the embryos on the floor .

A wrongful death lawsuit filed by three couples who had lost their embryos claimed this accident had “ killed them ”.

The clinic argued that Alabama ’ s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act did not apply to embryos outside of the womb , which was accepted by a district judge in 2022 .

But last month , the Alabama Supreme Court threw out the ruling in an 8-1 majority decision .

“ The central question presented in these consolidated appeals , which involve the death of embryos kept in a cryogenic nursery , is whether the act contains an unwritten exception to that rule for extrauterine children — that is , unborn children who are located outside of a biological uterus at the time they are killed ,” Justice Jay Mitchell wrote .

He said the Supreme Court had previously ruled that fetuses killed while a woman was pregnant were covered under the Act .

This meant that nothing excluded “ extrauterine children ” from the Act ’ s coverage .

Chief Justice Tom Parker , who also ruled on the case , said : “ Human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God , who views the destruction of his image as an affront to himself .”

Barbara Collura , CEO of the National Infertility Association , said : “ This ruling is stating that a fertilised egg , which is a clump of cells , is now a person .”

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Chief Justice Tom Parker .

Rachel Fieldhouse THE Federal Government ’ s per-patient spending on general practice has fallen from $ 460 to $ 420 in one year , which an expert says reflects not just the bulk-billing crash but more patients not seeing a GP at all .

The figure , adjusted for inflation , rose from $ 418 in 2014 / 15 to $ 465 in 2020 / 21 , according to the Productivity Commission ’ s annual report on government services .

But after dipping to $ 461 in 2021 / 22 , it plummeted to $ 420 in the most recent financial year .

Peter Breadon , health program director of Melbourne ’ s Grattan Institute , said it reflected GPs providing fewer overall services under Medicare amid rapid inflation , population growth and a shift to private billing .

“ A crash in GP COVID-19 vaccination also contributed to the decline in spending , with COVID-19 vaccination items falling by 14 million ,” he added .

However , even after excluding the “ anomalous ” vaccination items , Mr Breadon said the overall volume of GP services had dropped by nearly 5 % compared with previous years .

The commission ’ s 2024 Report on Government Services showed that the average out-of-pocket costs for GP care among patients who paid a gap had not changed much , still sitting at around $ 43 .

The number of privately billed GP services spiked to 33 million last financial year , up from 22 million the previous year . At the same time , the number of bulk-billed services went backwards from 167 million to 134 million .

Referring to the shift to private billing , Mr Breadon said the share of people who reported costs as the reason they skipped or delayed GP care had doubled from 3.5 % to 7 %.

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