A thought experiment: How to Upend Thousands of Years of Law and Traditions. Or, The Law of Unintended Consequences

First things first, IANAL, but I have had, twice, the privilege of being an executor of an estate. If somebody knows more about the issues I have raised, I hope they will let me know… Fetal personhood is seen, by some, as a strategic goal to end access to abortion. What might happen if that goal is achieved? Imagine, a time in the near(?) future, when, in the battle over abortion, fetal personhood is created and blessed by the Supreme Court. _______________________________________________________________________________ A couple experiencing reproductive difficulties turns to IVF to fulfill their desire to have children. Of course, in the current state of reproductive medicine, the doctors don't just harvest one egg to fulfill the couple's need for children. For the purpose of this argument, we'll stipulate that this couple is fertile and already have two children and that they (the parents) have been financially successful. They are just having trouble conceiving more children. They undergo the procedure and more than a dozen embryos are successfully fertilized to aid their quest. Then, the unthinkable happens and they both killed in a tragic accident. Fortunately, they both have wills and leave their fortune, first, to each other; and secondly, to be distributed equally amongst their children, with the born pair named as the executor and as an alternate executor. One of the most important duties an executor accepts is a fiduciary relationship to the beneficiaries of the estate. When one has a fiduciary responsibility to another person, one legally must put the interests of the beneficiaries before their own interests and also securing the estate's value and defending it against losses. So, with fetal personhood, with all the rights and privileges that entails, means that there are not two beneficiaries, but, at least, 15 beneficiaries. (The two born children plus all of the frozen embryos) Since the frozen embryos aren't able to speak on their own behalf, they will need to their interests represented by a guardian of sorts. Although the executor of the estate might be willing to act in that capacity, it seems to me that the obvious conflicts of interest would require the appointment at least one guardian to protect the interests of the embryos. (Not a bad gig to get, representing people who will never be able to speak for themselves, will never be born and won't die for a very long time) Since the parents' will specified that the estate be equally divided, that means that the two born children are only entitled to 1/15th of the estate each and the remainder of the estate will be apportioned to the care and maintenance of the frozen embryos, individually, in perpetuity, passing, from time to time, to new guardian(s) as the original guardian(s) succumb to mortality in due course. Since the embryos have the rights of personhood, the executors couldn't simply decide to stop paying the fertility clinic's bills to maintain the embryos in a frozen state, that would be a murder most foul, motivated by money. Not to mention, that each embryo would then have their own estate, without a will (unless their guardian(s) wrote one for them) so state laws would dictate how their money would be distributed. I can't imagine that the two born children would be at all satisfied with this arrangement.