Judge uses a slavery law to rule frozen embryos are property

A Virginia judge has ruled that frozen embryos can legally be considered property, based partly on a 19th century law governing the treatment of slaves. The ruling last month by Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Richard Gardiner is being criticized by some lawyers for wrongly delving into a time in Virginia history when it was legally permissible to own human beings. The case involves a dispute between a divorced couple in which the ex-wife wants to use two frozen embryos the couple created when they were married to conceive another child. The ex-husband objects.