Q&A: Why have anti-abortion activists accidentally banned fertility treatment in Alabama?
Playback speed
Alabama’s Supreme Court has ruled that embryos in deep freeze, stored as part of IVF treatment, can be considered as legally children. This unexpected judgement has prompted many clinics to shut their doors, fearing lawsuits, as the storage and eventual destruction of surplus embryos is standard practice in IVF. In this episode we reflect on how anti-abortion language written into Alabama law has unintentionally led to this current impasse, and whether there is a tension between how evangelical Christians consider the embryo when it is in the womb versus in a test tube. Later, we respond to criticism from a listener to our discussion earlier this year on the gender gap in church.
The BBC News article Tim mentions on the Alabama ruling and responses to it is here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68396485
• Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173
• If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com
Released on 13 Mar 2024
Coming up next
Tech hype: Should Christians resist or lean into AI?
As is probably obvious from previous episodes, John is extremely interested in generative AI and thinks it will be the next transformative technology to entirely up-end how society works. Tim, however, is much more sceptical and thinks a lot of the r...
New obesity drugs, the morality of food, and has neuroscience killed off free will?
A new wave of anti-obesity drugs led by Wegovy (also known as Ozempic) are causing huge ripples in the medical world and popular culture. Astonishingly successful at helping people lose weight, these drugs both offer a tantalising solution to the obe...
Tim Farron, toxic social media, and how to navigate the ‘mucky business’ of politics
We’re both away for our Easter breaks, so this week we’re bringing you a classic episode from the MOLAD archive, when we were joined by the former leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron to discuss social media and politics. Research suggests UK m...