develop using a surrogate carrier, hence to be born, and to benefit from an inheritance trust that had been created for them and is administered by Charbonnet. While a contract between Vergara and Loeb had been signed prior to the creation of the embryos stipulating that neither party could use the embryos without the consent of the other, the lawsuit had tried to void this agreement. Loeb had written “Keeping them frozen forever is tantamount to killing them,” in a 2015 op-ed in The New York Times. The suit also tried to terminate parental rights of Vergara because by keeping them in cryopreservation in a medical clinic she allegedly abandoned and neglected the embryos. The legal case was novel and took advantage of Louisiana's embryo laws; the state passed a law in 1986 that declares embryos to be “juridical persons,” giving embryos the right to sue or be sued. In August 2017, a Louisiana judge dismissed the case on the grounds that the court had no jurisdiction over the embryos, which were conceived in California. Filmography Film Television Music video Theatre Chicago as Matron "Mama" Morton (2009) Awards and nominations In 2014, Vergara was ranked as the 32nd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes; her position was 38 the previous year. References External links 1972 births Living people 20th-century American actresses 20th-century Colombian actresses 21st-century American actresses 21st-century Colombian actresses American female models American film actresses American telenovela actresses American television actresses American television producers American women television producers American voice actresses Colombian expatriates in the United States Colombian female models Colombian film actresses Hispanic and Latino American actresses Colombian telenovela actresses Colombian television actresses Colombian television producers Colombian voice actresses People from Barranquilla People with acquired American citizenship Ventriloquists