In Davis v. Davis (1992), the Supreme Court of Tennessee decided a dispute over cryopreserved preembryos in favor of Junior Lewis Davis, who sought to have the preembryos destroyed over the objections of his former wife, Mary Sue Davis. The decision in Davis, although not binding in other states, suggested a framework for resolving similar disputes in the US. That framework established that courts should follow the wishes of those who contribute their sperm and egg cells, or gamete providers, to create preembryos. In the event of a dispute, courts should enforce any prior agreement between the gamete providers and in the absence of such an agreement, the court should weigh the interests of the parties, ordinarily ruling in favor of the party who wishes to avoid procreation.

In a dispute over the allocation of cryopreserved preembryos, the Supreme Court of Washington resolved the case of David J. Litowitz v. Becky M. Litowitz (2002) by reaching a decision that neither party wanted. David Litowitz sought to find adoptive parents for two cryopreserved preembryos created during his marriage to Becky Litowitz when the couple was attempting to have children using in vitro fertilization (IVF). Becky sought to implant the preembryos in a surrogate in an effort to parent a child. In June 2002, the court instead determined that the preembryos should have been destroyed. The court focused on the former couple s written consent agreement signed at the time of their participation in the IVF program, which stated that the preembryos would be destroyed after five years of storage.

In Arizona, statutes that protect persons, such as the wrongful death statute, will not be interpreted by the courts to grant personhood status to frozen embryos. The legislature may grant such protection in the statute if it chooses to do so by explicitly defining the word person to include frozen embryos.

In a case of first impression in the state of New York, the highest state court decided that a priori written agreement between progenitors of frozen embryos regarding the disposition of their "pre-zygotes" in the event of divorce is binding. By copying the general result arrived at by the Tennessee Supreme Court in Davis v. Davis in 1992, the New York court magnified the weight of authority in favor of upholding prior written agreements for in vitro fertilization practices.

In 2001, the Supreme Court of New Jersey decided a dispute between a divorced couple over cryopreserved preembryos created through in vitro fertilization (IVF) during the coupleÕs marriage. The former wife (J.B.) wanted the preembryos destroyed, while her former husband (M.B.) wanted them to be used for future implantation attempts, such as by an infertile couple. In J.B. v. M.B. (2001), the court declined to force J.B. to become a parent against her will, concluding that doing so would violate state public policy. Instead, the Supreme Court of New Jersey decided that agreements directing the allocation of cryopreserved preembryos will be enforced, unless one party changes his or her mind prior to the preembryosÕ use or destruction. Should a party revoke an earlier decision about the preembryos, New Jersey courts should weigh the partiesÕ interests with special weight given to an individualÕs right to not procreate.

In 1983, researchers Alan Trounson and Linda Mohr published the article “Human Pregnancy Following Cryopreservation, Thawing and Transfer of an Eight-Cell Embryo,” hereafter “Human Pregnancy,” in the journal Nature. In the article, the authors describe an experiment that led to one of the world’s first pregnancies through cryopreservation, or freezing, of an eight-cell human embryo. They discuss an experiment conducted at the Monash University and Queen Victoria Medical Center in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to the article’s publication, scientists had reported on embryonic cryopreservation experiments with animals only. At the end of the article, the authors mention that the pregnancy ended in a spontaneous miscarriage due to problems unrelated to cryopreservation twenty-four weeks after embryonic transfer. Despite the miscarriage, “Human Pregnancy” is one of the first articles to describe a successful human pregnancy after cryopreservation, and demonstrated that cryopreservation, as part of in vitro fertilization treatment, was a viable option for humans as well.

Alan Osborne Trounson is a scientist from Australia who studies embryology and stem cells. His research has improved the success rates of in vitro fertilization, or IVF. IVF is a medical procedure in which scientists fertilize an egg cell with sperm outside of the body, often in a laboratory petri dish, then transfer the fertilized egg to a woman’s uterus to start pregnancy. Trounson also researched embryonic stem cells, or stem cells collected from embryos, and their potential for treating injuries and diseases. Additionally, Trounson led the Californian Institute for Regenerative Medicine, or CIRM, one of the largest agencies to fund stem cell research in California, from 2007 to 2014. Over the course of his career, Trounson developed several techniques that improved the effectiveness of IVF, including fertility treatments and cryopreservation, and supported stem cell research as a scientist and administrator.