Why do it?

Benefits of Embryo Adoption:

• Reduced Costs. Oftentimes it is lower in cost compared to traditional adoption, egg donation, or IVF.
• Reduced Wait Times. The average time between submitting an application to receiving a donation is approximately 6 months, much shorter than the average time to receive an egg donation or complete a traditional adoption.
• High Success Rates. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, embryo adoptions have a national pregnancy success rate of 43 percent and live birth rate of 35 percent.
• Take Home Babies. Should a pregnancy result, there is no risk of failed placements or changes of heart after the birth.
• Pregnancy & Childbirth. The adoptive mother will have the ability to control the prenatal environment and xperience the joys of pregnancy, childbirth and nursing her adopted child
• Maternal Age Non-Applicable. If a woman is experiencing premature menopause, or another infertility condition in which her own eggs are not viable for reproductive purposes, she can still become pregnant with a donor embryo.
• Reveres the Sanctity of Life. The discarding of embryos is ethically problematic for some individuals. Allowing these embryos to be used to help create a new life is an alternative to disposal or use in research.
• Siblings. Often times multiple embryos are available from a donor. This can result in several genetic siblings being born from the same group of embryos. If the recipient does not use all of these embryos – they can be returned to the original donor to be re-adopted out to another family in need.
• Personalized Selection. Many embryo banks include information about the donating individuals in order to help match the recipient with desired ethnic, sex, or physical traits.
• Medically Safe. This adoption process is regulated by the government and all appropriate disease screening is required by law to protect the recipient.
• Legally Safe. Despite the connotations associated with the name, an embryo adoption is actually a transfer of property – not the adoption of a child. Therefore, the donating couple is not legally responsible in any way should a child be produced from the embryo.
• Homestudy Approved. Many embryo adoption programs will conduct a thorough home study to determine whether or not the embryo will be given to a couple who can provide a safe and loving environment should a child result.