What’s involved in embryo adoption?

Hello! My husband and I are considering using donated embryos because we think that’s a good opportunity to let these human being have a life! Creating them required too much effort as to end up int he trash, don’t you think so? But we wish to know how does this treatment work here in California. Please, let us know. We wish to create a family soon 🙂

Dear Tanja,

If you are considering adoption embryos remaining from one couple’s IVF cycle, my advice is that you keep at least the following things in mind:

1. When the fertility clinic where you will be starting the treatment gives you the agreement, read it carefully. Special attention must be draw to the part related to the donor, as some facilities require donors to give up any of their rights to the embryos or to relinquish the embryos immediately. On the other hand, other centers allow donors to decide who will be the recipient couple, in which case they are required to give up their rights just after the adoption.
2. Some clinics require adoptive parents to return unused embryos after one year trying to conceive with no luck.
3. Some fertility clinics prefer to remain outside the whole adoption process. In some cases, if the clinic decides not to give access to the embryos either to the biological parents or the adoptive parents, both will have to wait to do so until a court settles the matter.

Likewise, there are some questions that I would ask my attorney if I were to adopt an embryo. The following are the most common:

1. Can the unborn child meet the children of his/her biological parents and know each other? And the other way about, that is, make sure the siblings never meet?
2. Which set of rules applies if the donors live in a US state other than yours (California in your case)?

These are the most important aspects involved in the embryo donation process, but this does not mean there aren’t more important aspects to keep in mind. Thus, whatever your question is, do not hesitate to share it with your clinic’s team.

I hope I have been able to help,

Best wishes