It's Wednesday, April 16, 2025.

I'm Albert Mowler, and this is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

What do we do with the embryo? What do we owe the embryo?

There are so many questions related to the existence of the human embryo, and we need to recognize

this is a very modern question.

It is only since, say, 1978 that we have much of a conversation here at all when we look

at the development of what was called the world's first test tube baby, and that was treated as a massive

technological and scientific breakthrough that just might redefine the future of human reproduction

and it just might have, or it just might yet. The New York Times addressed this question,

which it called the embryo question, in a massive set of essays, three different essays.

And as to the credit of the New York Times that they treated this as a very legitimate moral issue.

And they gave multiple pages in the opinion section of Sunday newspaper to the questions.

We as Christians know these are vital questions.

These are inescapable questions, unavoidable questions. There are questions of great urgency.

We also understand that Christians have been doing their best, at least many Christians,

to ignore this question, it can be ignored no longer. And quite honestly, the fact that the

secular world understands that the question cannot be ignored ought to be a wake-up call for Christians.

Now, let's just ask what kind of questions did the New York Times series address?

The author is Anna Louise Sussman, and she directs us to many of the most urgent questions. For example, what do we owe

this cluster of cells? Interesting way that's put. But she's at least asking the question,

what do we owe this cluster of cells? What time limit should we set? Is this the future of having

babies? Should human life be optimized?

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