Nick Loeb, the ex-fiance of actress Sofia Vergara, has not given up his fight to provide their embryo children with a chance at life.
Vergara and Loeb have been in an on-going legal battle for more than two years about the fate of their frozen embryos. Loeb named them Emma and Isabella. Loeb, an actor and producer, wants to give the girls a chance to live, while the “Modern Family” actress wants them to remain frozen or be destroyed. The couple had the embryos created several years ago for in vitro fertilization, but they later split.
In the latest development, Loeb filed a new lawsuit against Vergara seeking full and sole custody of the embryos, Breitbart reports. Though the girls are in the earliest stage of life, they are already human beings who have their own unique DNA.
Attorney Jalesia “Jasha” McQueen said their lawsuit, filed in Louisiana, will focus on the embryos’ rights as human beings. The suit asserts that it is in the embryos’ best interest to be placed in their father’s custody.
“Embryos have their unique DNA and they have a gender,” McQueen said. “This is the part that the courts are not understanding. They’re not understanding the value of these embryos and the connection people who have gone through IVF have with them – regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum.”
Here’s more from the report:
Loeb is pursuing the case in Louisiana where embryos are considered “natural persons,” as opposed to California, which considers them “property,” and, consequently akin to “slaves,” the petition claims, continuing:
A failure to exercise jurisdiction would deprive and deny Emma and Isabella of their rights to equal protection under the laws guaranteed them by the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. …
Under Louisiana laws, Mr. Loeb, a father, desires and is entitled to an award of full and sole custody of his daughters, Emma and Isabella, to protect them from California, a state that considers Emma and Isabella mere property.
Loeb had a pro-life conversion after two of his unborn children were aborted earlier in life. He said he believes his daughters, Emma and Isabella, deserve to be protected from the moment of conception.
“The biggest misconception out there is that I’m trying to steal my ex’s eggs,” Loeb told Breitbart Wednesday. “But, they’re not eggs. They’re embryos. It’s 50 percent me. It’s 50 percent mine.
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“If the roles were reversed, and she wanted them, and I wanted to destroy them, the entire mainstream media would be up in arms and I would be the evil man,” he said.
Loeb previously said he does not want any financial support from Vergara for the children. If he wins custody, he said he would find a surrogate willing to carry the girls to term, and then raise them himself.
In August, Loeb lost a previous case against Vergara in Louisiana. A judge dismissed the lawsuit, arguing that the embryos are “citizens of California” and do not have personal ties to Louisiana.
Earlier, Loeb also dropped his initial lawsuit against Vergara because a judge ordered him to reveal the identities of two previous girlfriends who aborted their unborn babies with him.
In an email to Catholic commentator Matt C. Abbott, Loeb previously explained why he does not want to reveal the women’s names: “Could you imagine if you had moved on with your life, gotten married, had children and kept this a secret from your family – then, all of a sudden, 15 years later, you’re made to reveal your abortion to the world? Maybe your parents never knew; maybe your husband never knew, nor your children.”
Abram Moore, counsel for Loeb, told Abbott that the abortions caused Loeb “considerable duress-after-the-fact, and contributed to the development of his firm pro-life beliefs.”
A source close to Loeb explained he does not want to see the embryos destroyed because he now strongly believes that life begins at conception.
Vergara’s lawyers said she wants the embryos to be frozen indefinitely. She also previously said she believes children should be the product of a loving relationship.
“A child needs a mother and a loving relationship with parents that get along, that don’t hate each other . . . Kids need parents,” Vergara said.
The ex-couple’s case is exploring new legal quandaries about frozen human embryos, their worth and parents’ rights.
National Review reports a Colorado couple is embroiled in a similar battle. The mother, Mandy Rooks, wants to give their six frozen embryos a chance at life, but her ex-husband, Drake Rooks, does not.
Here’s more from that report:
Mandy, 40, who reportedly always dreamed of having a large family, would like to use some or all of them to have more children. Drake, 50, says absolutely not. “It just seems like a guy should be able to decide whether he wants more children or not and with whom,” he told the Denver Post.
Mandy counters that “no one has the right to tell me I have to kill my offspring.” And what of the embryos’ rights?
