Virginia judge to decide whether state law considers embryos as property

A trial is underway in Virginia that will determine whether state law allows frozen embryos to be considered property that can be divided up and assigned a monetary value.

Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Dontae Bugg heard arguments Thursday from a divorced couple who disagree over the ex-wife’s desire to use two embryos that they created when they were married.

Honeyhline Heidemann says the embryos are her last chance to conceive a biological child after a cancer treatment left her infertile. Jason Heidemann, says he does not want to be forced to become a biological father to another child.

The case attracted national attention last year when a different judge, Richard Gardiner, ruled that embryos could be considered “goods or chattel” that could be divided under state law, and his analysis relied in part on a 19th-century law governing the treatment of slaves.

Gardiner is no longer assigned to the case, for reasons unrelated to his citation of slavery as a precedent.