A 'Modern Family' Issue: Recategorizing Embryos in the 21st Century

• Author: Hannah C. Catchings
• Position: J.D./D.C.L., 2020. Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University
• Pages: 1527-1563

Louisiana Law Review Louisiana Law Review

Volume 80

Number 4

Summer 2020

Article 12

11-11-2020

A “Modern Family” Issue: Recategorizing Embryos in the 21st A “Modern Family” Issue: Recategorizing Embryos in the 21st

Century Century

Hannah C. Catchings

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev

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Repository Citation Repository Citation

Hannah C. Catchings,

A “Modern Family” Issue: Recategorizing Embryos in the 21st Century

, 80 La. L. Rev.

(2020)

Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol80/iss4/12

This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at LSU Law Digital

Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Louisiana Law Review by an authorized editor of LSU Law Digital

Commons. For more information, please contact kreed25@lsu.edu.

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A “Modern Family” Issue: Recategorizing Embryos

in the 21st Century

Hannah C. Catchings

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ................................................................................ 1522

I. Reproduction 2.0: Defining ART and the IVF Process.............. 1526

A. Up Close and Personal with Assisted Reproduction............ 1527

B. It Takes a Village: Regulating Assisted

Reproductive Technology.................................................... 1530

C. Ice, Ice Baby: Exploring the Legal Status of

the Pre-Implantation Embryo .............................................. 1532

1. Pre-Embryos as Property............................................... 1533

2. Pre-Embryos as Persons................................................ 1535

3. The Middle Ground....................................................... 1535

D. Legal Status of Embryos in Louisiana................................. 1536

II. Out with the Old: Static Thinking and

the Need for Change................................................................... 1538

A. Granting Embryos the Capacity to Sue:

Louisiana Revised Statutes Section 9:124........................... 1539

B. Pre-Embryos and Custody: Analyzing the

Best Interest Standard.......................................................... 1542

C. Theoretical Inconsistencies in

the Louisiana Civil Code ..................................................... 1545

III. In with the New: Embryo Classification for

the 21st Century ......................................................................... 1548

A. Option One: “A Unique Category of Being”....................... 1549

B. Option Two: Unique and Irreplaceable Property................. 1552

Conclusion.................................................................................. 1555

Copyright 2020, by HANNAH C. CATCHINGS.

 J.D./D.C.L., 2020. Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University.

The author would like to thank Associate Dean Andrea Carroll and Professor Olivier

Moréteau for their invaluable guidance throughout the writing process. This

Comment is dedicated to my mother, Cyndy Catchings, whom I cannot thank

enough for her unwavering support and encouragement.

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1522 LOUISIANA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 80

INTRODUCTION

In 2015, The New York Times published a highly personal op-ed

written by Nick Loeb,1 a businessman and Tulane University alumnus.2

Loeb began the op-ed by writing, “Last August, I filed a complaint . . .

using pseudonyms, to protect two frozen embryos3 I created with my

former fiancée.”4 Loeb said he wanted to keep the issue private, “but

recently the story broke to the world.”5 Loeb’s former fiancée is actress

Sofia Vergara, who starred in the ABC series Modern Family.6 In August

of 2014, Loeb sued Vergara in California seeking possession of two frozen

embryos that he and Vergara created through a second round of in vitro

fertilization (IVF)7 the previous year.8 The couple contracted with a

1. Nick Loeb, Sofia Ve rgara’s Ex-Fiancé: Our Fro zen Embryos Have a

Right to Live, N.Y. TIMES (Apr. 29, 2015), https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/

30/opinion/sofiavergaras-ex-fiance-our-frozen-embryos-have-a-right-to-live.html

[https://perma.cc/8XXD-CUN8]. Loeb recently made headlines for his role as a

co-producer, co-writer, and co-director of a pro-life film titled Roe v. Wade the

Movie, filmed in Louisiana in 2018. E.g., Mike Scott, Roe v. Wade Movie to Film

in Louisiana—But There’s a Twist, T IMES–PICAYUNE (Jun. 11, 2018),

https://www.nola.com/movies/index.ssf/2018/06/roe_v_wade_movie_to_film_in_l

o.html [https://perma.cc/59GQ-RKWL]; Charles Lussier, As Roe v. Wade Films,

Vastly Different Stories from Nick Loeb and LSU, Tulane About On-Campus

Filming, THE NEW ORLEANS ADV OCATE (Jul. 9, 2018), https://www.th e

advocate.com/new_orleans/news/education/article_07c2b3a2-83b8-11e8-b8f6-dbd

8b71064ad.html [https://perma.cc/RTA7-FURV].

2. Nick Loeb, IMDB, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005161/ [https://

perma.cc/PKE5-RTQR] (last visited Nov. 10, 2018).

3. Unless otherwise stated, all uses of the word “embryo” in this Comment

refer to a pre-implantation embryo.

4. Loeb, supra note 1.

5. Id.

6. Id.

7. In vitro fertilization, most commonly referred to as IVF, is a form of

assisted reproduction that involves fertilizing an egg with sperm in a laboratory

dish. In Vitro Fertilization, MERRIAM-WEBSTER DICTIONARY, https://www.

merriam-webster.com/dictionary/in%20vitro%20fertilization [h ttps://perma.cc/

69FU-NK5B] (last visited Nov. 3, 2018). See infra Part I.

8. Human Embryo #4 HB-A v. Vergara, No. 17-1498, 2017 U.S. Dist.

LEXIS 136782, at *5–7 (E.D. La. Aug. 25, 2017). Loeb and Vergara went through

an earlier round of IVF in 2013, which also resulted in two v iable embryos. Id. at

*2–3.