I'm of "advanced maternal age"...43 y.o. but would like to add to our family. Has anyone had experience with donor embryos? Thanks in advance for any thoughts and/or advice!
Hi,
I don't have experience with this but wanted to pass along my positive thoughts to you. I wish you the best with your embryo adoption!~ I hope that you find the best match for your family and your dreams of adding to your family are fulfilled. Take good care.
Molly
One of the mom's that was in my youngests playgroup did donate her remaining 3 embryos. we live in MA and they were shipped to FL. One was damaged in shipping, one wasn't viable, and the third was implanted and that woman had a beautiful little girl now :) I don't know how the entire process works but I remember her saying the entire process was similar to a regular adoption. They went through an agency, selected this family, actually got to meet them and they send them photos regularly (although they don't have to), and signed a lot of legal paperwork.
Good luck.
Bethany Christian Services is a national agency that handles embryo adoption. I have worked with them before (although not for this particular thing) and they were very helpful in explaining things and not pressuring certain decisions. You could find one close to you and go talk to their adoption counselors about options and the whole process, including the issue with the legal stuff. There are still consumer protections even for "property transactions" and from what I've heard about people who do embryo adoption usually have no problems down the line.
A friend of mine just had her embryos adopted. She said it was a very long process but a wonderful one at the same time, because she knew she'd be helping another family achieve their dream of having kids. There were a lot of questions to be answered by both sides - open vs closed adoption, medical histories, etc - and the two families had to agree on each other before the adoption could go through.
If you want to carry a baby in your tummy, I think it's a great option.
I have no experience with this, but I do know that there is a Christian adoption agency you can find at nightlight.org which has a program called Snowflake embryo adoption.
I don't have a "personal" experience, but have read a lot about it. One of the first things you should do, is find out how your state deals with embryo adoption legally. Many (to most) states have nothing on the books concerning embryo adoption. Meaning, there is nothing really preventing "the giver" of the embryos from fighting for the child later. It is not protected like "normal adoptions." With normal adoptions, you might go through an agency, the birth parent/parents sever legal rights to the child, and you are legally the parents of the child. No such parameters are in place for embryo adoption.
In addition...embryos are not usually classified as people. So, it is considered a transfer of property, rather then adoption. It is usually referred to, as embryo donation. Because, you are not legally transferring a child from one family, to a new family. Adoption, is a legal process with paperwork, protection, and clearly drawn out rules within the paperwork.
There is no process in place like this, for embryos.
