Welcome to a breakpoint, a daily look at our ever-changing culture through the lens of

unchanging truth.

For the Colston Center, I'm John Stone Street.

A decision by the Supreme Court of Alabama that the state's wrongful death of a minor act applies to, quote,

all unborn children regardless of their location, including extra uterine embryos

stored in cryogenic nurserieseries has resulted in at least three

fertility clinics suspending in vitro fertilization services. In an interview on

the daily podcast New York Times reporter Azine Grazi claimed that the decision quote puts all fertility care in Alabama in limbo

It sets a huge and quite scary precedent. She said for anyone who's undergoing IVF, anyone who works in the fertility industry

in Alabama who is working with these embryos who are suddenly considered children."

Well, that panic, which has been typical of the media coverage about the decision makes sense given the court finally addressed the central question of IVF a question that the IVF industry has largely depended upon not being answered in order to grow and to expand.

In reality, the court's decision has only put a certain kind of fertility care in limbo,

fertility care that involves the creating, the storing, the preserving, and the

destroying of human embryos.

Given that approximately one and a half million embryos left over from IVF services are currently being stored in freezers in the United States,

the vast majority of which are destined for either destruction or donation for medical testing,

asking the question, what are they?

Well, that was long overdue.

Even if late in coming, pro-lifers have been right

to celebrate this small bit of ethical clarity

for an industry with little of it.

During IVF, eggs are fertilized with sperm in a lab.

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