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The Supreme Court in the American state of Alabama made a ruling last week that a frozen embryo is a child and to destroy an embryo, which is routine in fertility clinics, is now a crime. As a consequence Alabama's main hospital has paused IVF procedures. The hospital authorities say they feel for those relying on IVF to build a family but are concerned they could be prosecuted. Alabama, like many southern states in the United States, had already outlawed all abortions. But the embryo ruling makes it the only one to define life as starting at conception. Joel Wertheimer, a civil rights attorney in New York, who along with his wife has a child through IVF told Newsday that it's a real concerns for doctors and patients. He says, ''What this means is that all of these fertility clinics are now subject to potentially millions and millions of dollars of liabilities and lawsuits and ultimately they might just decide, like in Alabama, not to proceed right now. It's entirely plausible that parents who created an embryo could be liable too - it's terrifying.'' He says, ''The foetal personhood bills are spreading across the country.''

(Photo shows close-up of embryos being selected under microscope in laboratory before implantation. Female patients viable embryos are selected in the laboratory and then passed through to the theatre where they are implanted. Photo by Universal Images Group via Getty Images.)