First of all, a patient dropped someone else’s?! I have questions…
Second, the act just allows them to sue (“bring an action”) and doesn’t imply a certain amount of wrongdoing. The judge could still decide that not much of a civil award should be awarded given they are embryos and not birthed children.
A court should examine what was intended by “a minor” more carefully when a certain punishment or level of culpability is prescribed than in this case, when the law is just trying to enshrine parental rights to advocate.
Notably, the opinion explicitly quotes numerous theologians and Scripture: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/al-supreme-court/115829667.html
The last paragraph here pulls no punches:
Finally, the doctrine of the sanctity of life is rooted in the Sixth Commandment: “You shall not murder.” Exodus 20:13 (NKJV 1982). See John Eidsmoe, Those Ten Commandments: Why Won’t They Just Go Away? 31 Regent U. L. Rev. 11, 15 (2018) (arguing that the Sixth Commandment is the basis for “Respect for Life” in Western law); see also Van Orden v. Perry, 545 U.S. 677, 686-90 (2005) (discussing the impact of the Ten Commandments on America generally). Aquinas taught that “it is in no way lawful to slay the innocent” because “we ought to love the nature which God has made, and which is destroyed by slaying him.” Aquinas, supra, Second Part of the Second Part, Treatise on Prudence and Justice, Question 64, Art. 6. Likewise, Calvin explained the reason for the Sixth Commandment this way: “Man is both the image of God and our flesh. Wherefore, if we would not violate the image of God, we must hold the person of man sacred.” 2 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 256 (Henry Beveridge trans., Hendrickson Publishers 2008) (1559). These and many similar writings, creeds, catechisms, and teachings have informed the American public’s view of life as sacred.
In summary, the theologically based view of the sanctity of life adopted by the People of Alabama encompasses the following: (1) God made every person in His image; (2) each person therefore has a value that far exceeds the ability of human beings to calculate; and (3) human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself. Section 36.06 recognizes that this is true of unborn human life no less than it is of all other human life – that even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory.