Embryo Adoption: How to take out a foster child
Olga Lukinskaya
On the blog, on Instagram and on the This Gathered Nest youtube channel Angela talks about her amazing family: after the birth of two daughters, the couple was faced with the so-called secondary infertility. They thought about adoption - from 2012 to 2016, the family had three more children, two boys, one from Congo, one of the relatives of the United States, and a girl from China, and with Down syndrome. And then Angela found out about such a possibility, as embryo adoption, and decided to try. She is now in the eighth month of pregnancy and bears children - genetically completely unrelated to her or her husband. Most people have not even heard of this phenomenon - and we tried to figure out how it works.
When a couple uses assisted reproductive technologies (we often call them in vitro fertilization, IVF), often several embryos are formed - three, five, or even ten. In most cases, the couple does not plan to have such a number of children, and they can choose what to do with the rest of the embryos next. They can be stored frozen for an infinite period of time, destroyed, or transferred to scientists for research and, alternatively, given to an "adoption" for another couple. Destruction is not suitable for everyone from ethical or religious considerations, and storage is expensive - so if a couple is sure that they no longer want children, donation of the remaining embryos becomes the best option. Biological parents even have the opportunity to choose a new family for the unborn child - naturally, from families that have already been tested by the agency.
In relation to embryos, the words adoption — adoption — and donation — donation — are used interchangeably; since the child is born in a new family, there is no formal adoption process. Transfer of donor embryos is not governed by the law on adoption, but by the law on the transfer of property; from the moment of transplantation, the pregnant woman is considered the mother of the child, and her husband is the father, and their names will be indicated on the birth certificate. Agencies have a number of requirements for potential adoptive parents: they must be a stable couple of relatively young age (no older than forty-five years for a woman), not smoking and be healthy in general.
Embryos are transferred to new parents in the United States by various clinics and specialized agencies. For biological parents, it is an opportunity to give life to their children - and this is extremely important for people who believe that life begins at the time of fertilization. For a sterile couple, such an adoption is an opportunity to have a baby after going through all the stages of pregnancy and childbirth. In one of the specialized clinics for Angela, two embryos were picked up: it was decided to transplant two at once, since it was considered a great success to save a pregnancy with at least one child. The transplant was a success - so much so that Angela is pregnant with twins, that is, the family will soon have seven children. She says that contact with biological parents is possible at the discretion of the new family - if you wish, you can contact them, communicate and even make friends, but they will have no rights to the child.
For a sterile couple, such adoption is an opportunity to have a baby after going through all stages of pregnancy and childbirth.
Currently, in the States, about 600 thousand embryos are in a frozen state, waiting in the wings, and it is estimated that about a tenth of them are available for adoption by other parents. In 2014, more than a thousand embryos were adopted - and as a result, about five hundred children were born. To be able to give birth to an adopted child - this is also what they call this process - you will have to pay from seven to twenty thousand dollars, and for the USA it is cheaper than ordinary adoption.
Children born as a result of this procedure are also called “snowflakes” because the preparation of the embryo for transplantation involves the process of thawing after deep freezing. Hannah, who will be nineteen years old this year, became the first “snowflake” child - and she repeatedly won the meeting with George Bush, who, being the president of the United States, spoke in support of embryo adoption. The term "embryo adoption" was used as early as the eighties, but it was rather difficult to maintain such a pregnancy, and the first successful birth of the "snowflake" occurred on December 31, 1998.
Unfortunately, the birth rate as a result of embryo donation remains not very high - from thirty to fifty percent, according to various sources. This is due to the fact that not all embryos survive thawing and not all of them manage to attach to the surface of the uterus. Obviously, in many cases, women who have already had problems with the onset of pregnancy are adopted, so the procedure is not always successful.
The ability to choose embryos with a specific background depends on the program: for example, specialized agencies provide information on the social and economic status of donor parents and their medical history. In reproductive clinics, embryo donation programs are also conducted, but there may be very little information about the family from which they originate - but these programs are cheaper. Finally, it is also possible that the family selects donors on its own - they may turn out to be close friends undergoing the IVF program. In this case, it is still better to contact the agency or lawyers who will help to do everything according to the law.
As a result of the adoption of embryos in the family, children may appear, outwardly completely different from their parents - with a different skin color or eye cut. The same happens with ordinary adoption - and we hope that as this practice spreads, children's dissimilarity to parents will become more familiar, and incorrect questions like "Is this your child?" will be less.
Embryo adoption is also available to Russian women - in Europe or in Russia itself. Unlike the States, we can also carry such a child as a surrogate mother. Prices for IVF, including those with donor embryos, are much lower in Russia: a full cycle can cost about two hundred thousand rubles.
Currently, embryo adoption is a good option for religious couples who have been diagnosed with infertility.
As with many other aspects of the birth and adoption of children, the use of donor embryos is a matter of debate. In the USA, for example, the clinics involved insist that the parents be a heterosexual couple - it means that it’s impossible for a single woman or two women to adopt an embryo (for two men this is impossible for obvious reasons). On the other hand, embryo adoption takes only a small part of all types of adoption or surrogate motherhood; This is a relatively new direction, which may eventually become more accessible to all.
For many couples applying for IVF, it is important to know that embryos that are not used by them will not die - it is the destruction of the remaining embryos, by the way, that is the reason for the rejection of IVF by the Christian church. At present, embryo adoption is a good option to become parents for religious couples who have been diagnosed with infertility and for some reason IVF cannot be performed. This option is suitable for women who are able to endure pregnancy, but, for example, who have lost their ovaries as a result of cancer, or those who have a high risk of transmitting genetic diseases to offspring.
Angela, talking about her family, often emphasizes that she believes in God - and in science at the same time. One does not contradict the other, especially when there is a chance to give life to children who will be surrounded by love. As the heroine of our material about surrogate motherhood said, any ways that a child finds a loving family where they take care of him are good.
Cover: Leonid & Anna Dedukh - stock.adobe.com