“AZ actually developed a statute – A.R.S. 25-318.03 – on how to manage embryos in dissolution but there is a lingering question when parties are not married at the time of embryo creation.”
-Audra Petrolle, family law attorney at Rose Law Group
By Elizabeth Nolan Brown | Reason
Property divisions during divorces can often be acrimonious, but for Honeyhline and Jason Heidemann the matter reached a whole new level of import. The couple couldn’t decide who should retain ownership of the frozen embryos created with Honeyhline’s eggs and Jason’s sperm. This dispute has given rise to a novel legal case in Virginia.
A cancer survivor whose chemotherapy left her infertile, Honeyhline Heideman wanted to use the frozen embryos to conceive another child. She argued that ownership of the embryos could be addressed under Virginia’s “goods and chattels” statute.
But in a March 7, 2025, opinion letter, Judge Dontae L. Bugg disagreed, dismissing Honeyhline Heidemann’s suit and holding that “human embryos are not subject to partition” under Virginia law “as they do not constitute goods or chattels capable of being valued and sold.”
