North Dakota Senate Rejects Bill To Grant Rights To Fertilized Eggs

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Pregnancy / Obstetrics;  Sexual Health / STDs
Article Date: 08 Apr 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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The North Dakota Senate voted 29-16 on Friday to reject a bill that would have defined a human being as "any organism with the genome of homo sapiens," including a fertilized egg from the moment of conception, whether inside or outside the womb, the AP/Google.com reports. The measure created an "intense lobbying campaign" among abortion-rights supporters and opponents, the AP/Google.com reports. During a hearing on the bill, two reproductive endocrinologists testified that it would create complications in the in vitro fertilization field. State Sen. Curtis Olafson (R), an opponent of the bill, said the legislation would make it difficult for doctors to address medical complications if a pregnancy threatened a woman's life, since the fetus would have equal rights as the woman under the bill. Before the vote, state Rep. Dan Ruby (R), who sponsored the bill, wrote an e-mail to Democratic state senators saying that he would write letters to the editors of newspapers vouching for the senators' antiabortion-rights stance if they supported the bill. The AP/Google.com reports that legislatures in several states are considering similar proposals that would give rights to embryos (Wetzel, AP/Google.com, 4/4).

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