My last blog was on a relatively new type of adoption, embryo adoption. The visibility of embryo adoption will, I predict, increase quite a bit for three reasons.
The increased debate about stem cells will impact people’s awareness of and beliefs about frozen embryos, which are a main source of embryonic stem cells. Some scientists say that embryonic stem cells, which have not yet differentiated into different types of tissues, will be the most useful for treating diseases (although non-embryonic stem cells, obtained from blood, umbilical cords or other tissue, have already been used to treat aplastic anemia, and other diseases, including cancers such as leukemia and melanoma).
Another reason for increased visibility is a grant that was given to the National Institutes of Health last August to increase awareness of embryo adoption.
Finally, this month’s issue (March 2009) of Good Housekeeping magazine contains an article about three families with a total of seven children who are genetically full siblings—even though legally, those from separate households aren’t related at all.
The article explains that in the summer of 2002, Glenda and Scott Lyons, parents of three, received a letter from their fertility clinic asking what they wanted to do with the frozen embryos created in the same process with their twins: donate them for research, donate them to an anonymous pool to be matched with infertile couples, or pay a few hundred dollars to leave them frozen.
Glenda found a unique solution: she found another couple to give the leftover embryos to, and then both couples agreed on a third couple. (Then all three couples agreed on a fourth couple, but the embryo transfer failed in that case.)
Issues touched on in the article include: desiring distance from any genetic children, to maintain privacy and give the children their own lives, yet desiring to know they were going to a good home. The couples in the article also discuss the emotion of choosing between so many infertile couples, the lack of laws relating to embryonic transfer and also legal fatherhood, and whether the donating couple would feel too attached to the children, who would be their genetic children.
For these three couples, the story has ended happily. There has even been a gathering of the three families. The children reportedly have come to think of each other as cousins.
As my last blog mentioned, now there are often agencies matching potential embro donors and recipients. Nevertheless I highly recommend the full article—your local library or a neighbor likely has the last issue. The issues about the meetings between families will be relevant to adoptive and birth parents and children in open adoptions or who are in contact with the families who have adopted their child’s birth sibling/s. Other thoughtful articles and personal experience stories can be found through the links below.
A related Families.com blog:
The following links may be reached through our sister site, Adoption.com. The last link, the “news” page of the nonprofit National Embryo Donation Center, has some very thoughtful articles by persons with differing views on embryo donation.
Embryo Adoption: FAQs
National Embryo Donation Center
National Embryo Donation Center: News