Of celebrity breakups, IVF and embryos filing lawsuits

It’s a bizarre case, even by 2016 standards. Modern Family actress Sofia Vergara is being sued by her unborn embryos.

The outcome could have profound implications for the in-vitro fertilization (IVF) field, a booming industry projected to be worth $17 billion per year by 2022.

It also coincides with a spree of nominations by incoming president Donald Trump for pro-life advocates to take many top government positions.

But first things first — how can frozen fertilized eggs, which haven’t seen the light of day, take legal action against a 44-year-old woman?

The stage was set in 2013 when Vergara and then-fiancé Nick Loeb started pursuing IVF. The plan was to use a surrogate to carry the baby to term. The couple donated their sperm and eggs, which were then coupled in the lab to form unique embryos (technically speaking, they’re ‘pre-embryos’ Vergara’s lawyer points out).

According to Loeb, the couple twice tried to implant their embryos into a surrogate, but none led to a successful pregnancy. Loeb told the Today Show that he expected they would keep trying with the remaining fertilized eggs.

But instead, they broke up. Later that year, Loeb sued Vergara for custody of the two female embryos, which have since been named ‘Emma’ and ‘Isabella.’

Crucially, both Loeb and Vergara signed an agreement long before Emma and Isabella were conceived, which stated that neither would bring the embryos to term without the other’s consent. Loeb has argued that the agreement didn’t clearly state what would happen to the embryos if the couple split. He also claims he signed his part of the form under duress.

The story was beginning to fade away, as Vergara’s lawyers aggressively quashed the case in California courts.

Then on Tuesday, the absurdity skyrocketed. A pro-life group in Lousiana filed a “right-to-life” lawsuit against Vergara on behalf of the unborn embryos. The embryos are currently stored in Beverly Hills, but Louisana’s family law is far more pro-life than California’s.

While Loeb has not been directly connected to the group, the lawsuit states that he should gain full custody of the embryos and that a trust fund should be established to help finance the children’s upbringing.

Responding to the latest lawsuit, Vergara’s lawyer issued a statement to People that said it was a last-ditch effort by Loeb to stay in the public eye.

“Reports are out that Mr. Loeb has caused a lawsuit to be filed on behalf of the pre-embryos in Louisiana, essentially trying to get the same relief that he was trying to get through his failed legal attempt in California.”

By all accounts, Loeb faces an uphill battle with the case. Tom Pinkerton, an attorney for the Reproductive Law Center in San Diego told International Business Times that precedent from other (clearly different) cases is not on Loeb’s side.

“The idea that he wants to save the embryos because he thinks they’re people — it’s not going to fly. The courts have consistently ruled that a person’s interest in not becoming a parent against their will usually carries more weight than the other party’s desire to become a parent.”

Is Vergara’s predicament a one-off? It’s hard to say, but the process of freezing embryos is gaining momentum, according to a Grand View Research report, which makes long-term storage an issue.

Frozen Embryo Replacement (FER) technique is expected to witness a rapid rise in demand. Conventionally, most embryos were transferred through fresh cycles. However, with technology refinement, the number of frozen embryo transfers and the success rates have increased.

And that’s just the beginning.

In October 2016, news broke that a healthy “three-parent baby” had been born six months earlier. The vast majority of the child’s genetic makeup came from two core parents, but DNA from a second woman’s mitochondria had been spliced in to prevent the inheritance of a mitochondrial disorder.

While fertility science powers forward into unchartered waters, politically the United States seems set to revisit the same Roe v. Wade right-to-life issues of 1973.

The president-elect is rapidly staffing his new government with pro-life advocates. The list includes the new UN Ambassador (Nikki Haley), attorney general (Jeff Sessions), secretary for the health and human services department (Tom Price), HUD Secretary (Ben Carson) and education secretary (Betsy DeVos).

It seems the only thing guaranteed is that reproductive legal experts have an interesting road ahead.

Photo: EMMANUEL DUNAND, Getty Images