American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer denied bail after being charged with killing Canadian couple
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
The Supreme Court's decision on Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade has raised fears that it could have "far-reaching ramifications" on people looking to get pregnant and the clinics providing services to help them.
Experts have previously told CNN that a high court ruling could open up the legal terrain for states to interfere with the fertility process known as in vitro fertilization, in which a sperm fertilizes an egg outside the body.
Fertility doctors and academics who study the legal landscape around fertility told CNN there is grave uncertainty -- both about how abortion laws already on the books will be interpreted and about how lawmakers and local prosecutors may seek to push the envelope, freed from the precedents that have effectively shielded the fertility process from government meddling.
That lack of clarity, it is feared, will affect the treatments doctors are willing to offer IVF patients and the decisions people will have to make about how to pursue growing their families.
"Overturning Roe v. Wade will have vast, far-reaching ramifications for the fertility industry. The opinion includes numerous references to 'the unborn human being,' 'potential life,' and 'the life of the unborn.' Much of that language -- and the logic behind it -- applies to embryos," said Adam Wolf, a fertility attorney for Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise, in a statement Friday.
"Fertility clinics will face a flood of wrongful-death claims when the clinics discard embryos without authorization," Wolf added.
About 2 in every 100 children born in the US are conceived through IVF, according to data published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When an individual or couple undergoes the IVF process, the work begins in a lab, where a sperm fertilizes an egg after weeks of preparation. The goal is to ultimately transfer a healthy embryo into a person's uterus. But first, the embryo must grow to the blastocyst stage, which typically occurs between five and seven days after fertilization.
IVF clinics typically use two people's genetic material to create multiple embryos because they don't know which ones will grow to the right stage or which ones will result in a successful pregnancy.
American Society for Reproductive Medicine President Dr. Marcelle Cedars warned in May, "There is a clear and present danger that measures designed to restrict abortion could end up also curtailing access to the family building treatments upon which our infertility patients rely to build their families."
Wolf said he fears clinics and freezer manufacturers could face criminal charges for discarding embryos, or if a freezer holding embryos malfunctions.
"When fertility clinics accidentally discard embryos -- which happens far too often -- they are destroying potential life," he said. "Might fertility clinics and their embryologists face homicide or manslaughter charges for their misconduct? When the manufacturer of a freezer that holds embryos goes kaput, that freezer company has destroyed potential human life."
Dr. Carolina Sueldo, a fertility specialist who is also certified in both obstetrics and gynecology at University of California San Francisco-Fresno, told CNN Friday there is also a concern that "personhood bills would be next to follow with the belief that life begins at fertilization."
"This would dramatically impact the way infertility treatments are provided to patients in those states. These treatments are not only for infertility, but also for genetic diseases (and) recurrent miscarriages, " Sueldo said.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc says he plans to run in the next election as a candidate under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's leadership, amid questions about his rumoured interest in succeeding his longtime friend for the top job.
A group of suspects that allegedly defrauded seniors across Ontario and other parts of Canada using a so-called emergency grandparent scam appear to have ties to 'Italian traditional organized crime,' according to an investigator involved in the OPP-led probe.
A male columnist has apologized for a cringeworthy moment during former University of Iowa superstar and college basketball’s highest scorer Caitlin Clark’s first news conference as an Indiana Fever player.
Most Canadians in March reported feeling angry or pessimistic towards the federal government than at any point in the last six years, according to a survey by Nanos Research.
Short-term rental platforms that violate B.C.'s pending regulations can face administrative penalties of up to $10,000 per day, officials announced Thursday.
A Google Drive link allegedly containing 17 tracks that are purportedly from Swift's eagerly awaited "The Tortured Poets Department" album has been making the rounds on the internet in the past day and people are equal parts mad, sad and happy about it.
A motion to reverse a ban on the keffiyeh within Queen’s Park failed to receive unanimous consent Thursday just moments after Ontario Premier Doug Ford reiterated his view that prohibiting the garment in the House is divisive.
Sophie Kinsella, the best-selling author behind the 'Shopaholic' book series, has revealed that she is receiving treatment for brain cancer.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.
A popular highway in Alberta's Banff National Park now has a 'no stopping zone' to help protect two bears.