The Alabama Supreme Court docket’s in vitro fertilization ruling this 12 months, which held that frozen embryos must be thought-about kids, raised a protracted record of questions for folks anxious about their future fertility remedies. My colleague Tara Siegel Bernard and I tried to reply a lot of them in February.

However just a few uncommon ones linger for folks throughout who need to discover each choice. What does the legislation say about what you possibly can and might’t do together with your embryos? Are you able to promote them? And in the event you donate them — say, to a college for analysis — can you are taking a tax deduction?

Simple solutions to the questions on promoting and donating are elusive.

It’s not clear what number of human embryos sit in storage throughout the US, however loads of individuals who put them there fear about shedding management over them. Court docket circumstances just like the one in Alabama, which all however shut down I.V.F. remedies there briefly, will try this to an individual. So will the growing restrictions on abortion in lots of states — and the concurrent discussions of when life begins.

It might make sense to behave pre-emptively, in the event you probably can. However to do what?

Promoting embryos appears outlandish, although it could not violate federal legislation. The 1984 National Organ Transplant Act outlaws the sale of issues in or from the human physique like kidneys, livers, bones and pores and skin, however it makes no point out of embryos.

All authorized concerns apart, there will not be an enormous marketplace for anybody looking for to promote embryos. Plus, many potential sellers will most likely be considering arduous in regards to the emotions of any potential youngster and the questions that youngster might need years later.

“The voice that hasn’t been heard is the voice of the kids,” mentioned Dr. Sigal Klipstein, a doctor and chair of the American Society for Reproductive Drugs’s ethics committee. “They stands out as the greatest stakeholders.”

Then there’s the matter of a attainable tax deduction for donating embryos to a college for scientific analysis. The Inner Income Service declined to touch upon the matter, and it doesn’t seem to have issued any steerage that’s instantly on level.

Anybody who needs to take a deduction anyway and probably choose a battle with the I.R.S. would want to think about at the least three questions, mentioned Tessa R. Davis, a professor on the College of South Carolina’s Joseph F. Rice College of Legislation.

First, are embryos property, versus the product of a service providing? Second, if they’re property, how do you classify the asset given the various tax remedies for several types of belongings? Classification alone can form the dimensions of the deduction.

Lastly comes a very thorny query: What’s the honest market worth of an embryo?

This results in different questions: How would possibly the worth rely upon what it price to create your embryos? What about the price of sustaining them? Do you subtract a proportional quantity for any embryos you implanted — or do you accomplish that provided that implantation resulted in a stay delivery? One of many many causes universities may not ship a regular charitable affirmation letter to individuals who donate embryos is that these notes often spell out the worth of the donation.

Professor Davis has devoted her scholarship to questions on this common neighborhood, however she has few solutions right here. “The quick reply is that there’s very restricted and unclear steerage from the I.R.S. that’s not all the time internally constant,” she mentioned. “The very quick reply is, ‘Who is aware of?’”

One other query that authorized consultants ask in regards to the deductibility of frozen embryo donations is that this: Who would possibly need to be concerned in an argument over this deduction in federal courtroom?

The reply might shock you. “In the event you assume that embryos are property they usually have worth, then you definately’re off to the races with somebody making an attempt to intervene and say: ‘I.R.S., cease! These embryos aren’t property — they’re human beings in cryogenic nurseries,’” mentioned Susan L. Crockin, a lawyer in Washington and an adjunct professor at Georgetown College Legislation Middle, the place she teaches assisted reproductive know-how legislation.

In different phrases, you might not get an opportunity to win your argument about deductions. Third events might efficiently declare authorized standing to intervene within the case. As soon as they do, they may attempt to persuade a federal choose to close the case down by declaring that embryos are folks and never property.

For now, donating embryos to science is a factor you are able to do. However to somebody who believes that embryos are certainly folks, a federal courtroom case over whether or not any such donations are deductible is a chance to advance the reason for fetal personhood.

Somebody who desires to protect abortion rights, nonetheless, might not need to be in the midst of that.