LEGISLATURE: Embryo adoption pushes on

Human embryos could be formally adopted by people who want to become parents, under a bill that passed a Senate committee Friday. House Bill 388 is intended to clearly relinquish rights to a human embryo and allow parents who try to bring the embryo to life to be the legal parents of any child who may be born. The legislation could come to the Senate floor for a vote next week. It has already passed the House. The bill defines a human embryo as a fertilized egg, from the single-cell stage to 8-week development. The legislation skirts the issue of whether the embryo is a person. While the embryo could be adopted —- as a baby would be —- the bill deals with a contract regarding a parent’s rights to an embryo. It does not give the embryo its own rights. Embryo donation is allowed in Georgia.

—- Mary Lou Pickel

House may vote on billboard bill

A bill that would allow billboard companies to cut trees in the public right-of-way cleared a key vote Friday and could make it to the House floor early next week.

The House Transportation Committee approved S.B. 164 on a unanimous voice vote. The bill, which easily passed the Senate 41-7, would limit the height of new billboards to 75 feet.

In exchange, billboard owners could clear up to 1.5 acres along highways for each double-sided billboard. The industry also agreed to plant small trees or flowers in cleared areas.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jon Burns (R-Newington), said he wants billboard heights lowered. Billboards have soared up to 220 feet to rise above treetops along Georgia’s highways and interstates since the state restricted tree cutting and trimming in 1999.

—- Aaron Gould Sheinin