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| Sofia Vergara Photo attribution: © Glenn Francis www.PacificProDigital.com (CC BY-SA 4.0) |
Nick Loeb, Vergara's ex-fiancé, has sought custody of the embryos they had created while they were a couple. He says that Vergara had told him that embryos should never be destroyed, but her opinion allegedly changed after they split. Now, she wants the embryos either frozen indefinitely or destroyed.
The court granted Vergara a permanent injunction which bans Loeb from bringing the embryos to birth.
In a statement, Loeb said, “It’s sad that Sofia, a devout Catholic, would intentionally create babies just to kill them.”
Loeb has said that he is willing to provide for the girls they conceived, whom he named Emma and Isabella. He would waive any parental or financial responsibility for Vergara, but she was not swayed.
The court cited a contract both parties signed requiring them both to agree to do anything with the embryos. These kinds of agreements, which treat human beings as though they are property to be created or destroyed at a whim, are not uncommon in the realm of IVF.
Loeb wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in 2015 decrying how his daughters' lives are being treated.
“When we create embryos for the purpose of life, should we not define them as life, rather than as property?” he wrote. “Does one person’s desire to avoid biological parenthood (free of any legal obligations) outweigh another’s religious beliefs in the sanctity of life and desire to be a parent? A woman is entitled to bring a pregnancy to term even if the man objects. Shouldn’t a man who is willing to take on all parental responsibilities be similarly entitled to bring his embryos to term even if the woman objects?”
