The Thomas More Law Society filed briefs in Illinois Appellate Court in a wrongful-death suit against a fertility clinic accused of disposing of a couple's frozen embryos without permission.
In 2005 Cook County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Lawrence found that Alison Miller and Todd Parrish had cause to sue Chicago's Center for Human Reproduction for mistakenly disposing of the embryos four years prior.
Lawrence cited the 1980 Wrongful Death Act which allows for lawsuits to be filed if preborn babies are killed in an accident or assault, regardless of their "state of gestation or development."
"Philosophers and theologians may debate, but there is no doubt in the mind of the Illinois Legislature when life begins," he said. "It begins at conception."
The American Civil Liberties Union intends to argue that Lawrence's decision is not medically accurate however the Thomas More Center said the law reads differently.
Thomas Brejcha, president and chief counsel of the society, said the Illinois General Assembly's definition of conception is accurate according to tradition and contemporary medical usage.
"The crucial question is whether the pre-implanted embryo is a human being or personal property," he said. "We are in full agreement with Judge Lawrence that human life begins at conception and should be protected."
