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Entertainment December 8, 2016
Sofia Vergara has been slapped with a most unusual lawsuit. The “Modern Family” actress is, in effect, being sued by two frozen embryos she conceived with her former partner, Nick Loeb.
The embryos, named “Isabella” and “Emma,” are listed as plaintiffs in the suit which asks that Loeb be given full custody so that they can be implanted into a surrogate.
Although the frozen fertilized eggs are currently being stored at a Los Angeles facility, the lawsuit was filed in Louisiana, where Loeb created a trust fund under the embryos’ names. The pro-life state makes it possible for embryos to sue a person because Louisiana law grants embryos rights as humans.
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In response to lawsuit, however, Vergara’s lawyers released a statement calling the legal battle “unnecessary.”
“The media reports contend that Mr. Loeb has caused a lawsuit to be initiated claiming that the pre-embryos – which are not embryos, but rather frozen fertilized ova – have been given names by him and have a right to live,” the statement said. “Loeb apparently thinks that he will garner sympathy from the public and the courts through his latest maneuver, one that we believe will also result in failure.”
The statement went on to say that it is “unfortunate” that Loeb wants to “keep himself linked to Vergara, who is happily married” to American actor Joe Manganiello.
“If it is really a family that Loeb wants, he should hire a surrogate and an egg donor and create one without dragging Vergara through another unnecessary legal battle,” the statement continued.
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But although Vergara’s lawyers deem the case unnecessary, NBC News legal analyst Lisa Bloom said that Louisiana’s special legal protections for embryos could sway the case in Loeb’s favor.
“The caveat is that the state of Louisiana is very pro-life, and while this might seem like an extreme bizarre kind of case, a Louisiana judge could very well say, ‘I’m going to protect the lives of these two embryos,'” Bloom explained.
Loeb originally sued Vergara for the embryos in 2013. And last year, Loeb wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times detailing his plans to become a single father.
After breaking up, Loeb wrote that he offered to pay for all the expenses to carry the embryos to term and raise them. “If she did not wish to share custody, I would take on full parenting responsibilities and agreed to have her declared an egg donor,” he wrote. “She has refused. Her lawyer, Fred Silberberg, has told reporters that she wants to keep the embryos ‘frozen indefinitely.’ In my view, keeping them frozen forever is tantamount to killing them.”
READ MORE: Egg Freezing: Cool Fad or Hope for the Future?
Last year, however, Vergara explained in in interview with Howard Stern that she felt it would be selfish to keep the children. “A child needs a mother and a loving relationship with parents that get along that don’t hate each other … A kid needs parents,” the actress stated. “I wouldn’t imagine anyone saying that it’s sane to bring [into] the world kids that are already set up [with] everything wrong for them. It would be so selfish.”
Additionally, Vergara’s attorney said last year that she “never suggested that she wished to have the embryos destroyed.” Instead, she is “content to leave the embryos frozen indefinitely as she has no desire to have children with her ex.”
