A legal battle between Sofia Vergara and her ex-fiancé Nick Loeb over their frozen embryos has perpetuated for quite some time and has now taken on another twist. A new lawsuit has been filed on behalf of the embryos, giving the embryos the rights of people. This new lawsuit comes at the heels of Loeb dropping his 2015 case, which sought to bring the embryos to term. However, Loeb seems to have nothing to do with this new lawsuit as the documents reference a trust suing on behalf of the embryos. The lawsuit finds its grounds under Louisiana law, which designates two types of persons: natural and juridical—natural are obviously human beings, and juridical are entities which the law attributes personality. This law grants embryos the right to sue, prohibits their ownership or destruction, and requires disputes to be resolved in their “best interest.” In Louisiana, these juridical persons have the right to life itself. This new lawsuit has the potential to open the floodgates for future cases, but as of right now, the lawsuit is just seeking to gain Louisiana jurisdiction.
See Brandy Zadrozny, Sofia Vergara Embryo Case Could Open Floodgates, Daily Beast, December 8, 2016.
Special thanks to Naomi Cahn (Harold H. Greene Professor of Law, George Washington University School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.
