In-vitro fertilization has been a godsend to couple unable to conceive children on their own.
But Alabama's highest court thinks God had something else in mind and in a ruling last week put the future of IVF treatments at risk in that state.
Three couples who had fertilized embryos stored at a fertility clinic sued after the embryos were accidentally destroyed. The action was based on an 1872 law that lets parents sue when a minor child is killed.
The clinic's lawyers argued a fertilized embryo was not a child under the law, but had always been considered property.
But, in a first for any court in the U.S., the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos are children and the civil action could go on.
"The relevant statutory text is clear: the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies on its face to all unborn children, without limitation," the court stated in it's ruling.
"Even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory," Chief Justice Tom Parker wrote in a concurring opinion.
Now medical providers and patients are wondering what happens next.
Could IVF become unaffordable for many couples as clinics raise the cost of IVF treatment to pay for higher insurance premiums? Will clinics stop providing IVF services altogether for fear of being sued?
People with stored frozen embryos that were no longer needed had been able to have them donated or destroyed. But now? If they are children under law, will they be forced to pay to store frozen embryos forever?
And at the core, does protecting life mean possibly denying childless couples the opportunity to bring new life into this world through IVF?
The court's ruling -- whether one agrees with it or not -- is new legal ground. Other ant-abortion states may adopt similar stand. But there is little doubt the question will make it to the U.S. Supreme Court before this is settled.