Is Embryo Adoption For You?

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A friend of mine told me recently that she and her husband are thinking of adopting an embryo. I was really glad to hear this because I know she's had problems with fertility that have caused her a lot of upset. Plus, they'd be great parents. They'd thought about the 'traditional' route of adoption, but she wants a baby and there just aren't many 'available' where we live. With adopting an embryo-basically, taking one of the frozen 'extras' from another couple's in-vitro treatments-and having it implanted, she will still have the experience of being pregnant that she feels she's 'missing out' on. If this is something that seems interesting to you, here are some things to consider.

The success (meaning, live birth) rate is about 35%, which isn't much different from that of IVF. Of course, there are a lot of variables such as the woman's age and reason for infertility that go into it.

In many cases, the adoptive couple can pick and choose among the available donors. In a sense, they can have an embryo 'made to order'. On the other hand, though, the resulting child will not have any genetic bond to the adoptive parents. Whether or not this is a problem is entirely up to the parents.

On a related note, the donor couples often have the same choices regarding the recipients of their embryos. If the donors are allowed to pick who will receive their embryos, it might give them peace of mind in terms of their child having a good home. Also, they may be able to help out a friend or relative. On the other hand, the donors no longer have any legal ties to any children that result. Imagine seeing a child that you know came from you but not being able to raise her as your own. What kind of effect would this have on you and/or your existing children?

There is very little legal precedent surrounding embryo adoption. For this reason, many courts aren't entirely sure how to treat these sorts of situations. Are the embryos humans subject to adoption laws, or are they objects subject to property laws? These things can get really complicated, really quickly.

Remember that these are the embryos that didn't 'make the cut' for the first implantation. Even if they did turn out to be viable, they still may not survive being frozen and thawed. On the other hand, this means that any 'extras' from the original IVF treatment have another chance at being born. This isn't a guarantee, mind you, but a possibility. For people who believe that life begins at conception, this can be a big plus.

For people who might otherwise not be able to have children, embryo adoption is a new way of possibly adding to their families. There are still a lot of things left to consider, however. Each individual family has to decide what is best for them and their situation. If you'd like to learn more about embryo adoption, visit the Embryo Adoption Awareness Center at http://www.embryoadoption.org/index.cfm.