If you have fears about surrogacy that you are wanting to explore and overcome, you must check out this fantastic blog by Mommy Man. What are your thoughts and fears?
Embryo Adoption
Modern technology complicates our lives but also can provide profound solutions.
Many couples who are unable to conceive children turn to in-vitro fertilization. As is common in IVF procedures, the woman’s eggs are harvested and subsequently fertilized by her partner’s sperm. Then, the woman is implanted with one embryo, while the others embryos are stored. Many times after a successful embryo transfers and a resulting baby, couples wonder about the embryos that remain in cold storage. They wanted the embryos to be seen as babies, even though they were little more than zygotes with two cells.
Today, some couples are offering their remaining unused embryos for adoption by other couples. It is advisable to have both a physician and an attorney familiar in your state laws meeting with a couple to explain the process, both medically and legally. However, embryo adoption can be a good solution that give one set of parents peace of mind about the embryos they had created but not used, and another couple a chance to be pregnant and to fully experience having a family.
For more information, check out this video on embryo adoption.
ART and the Media
Ann’s Decision
My 4-year old son is questioning where babies come from. How do they get in their mommy’s bellies? How do they get out? He is fascinated and astounded at my carefully-crafted answers. And even though this is obviously not my first time to figure out how the process works, I can’t help but be astounded too. It really is amazing, and what is even more amazing is our ability to manipulate the process to assist couples that are dealing with fertility issues.
Apparently, I am not the only with artificial reproductive technology on the mind. Coincidentally, two of my favorite television sitcoms, Parks and Recreation and The Mindy Project have characters in situation involving the hand selection of a sperm donor to assist with making a baby, in one instance for a single women and in another for a married couple. Even these light comedies had to slow down and allow their characters to grasp the gravity of such a huge decision.
The laws defining artificial reproduction are unclear and not well defined. Usually, the best way to get the legislature’s attention is through PR and the media. Hopefully, by raising awareness about these issues and bringing them into the spotlight, the law will begin to take notice of the need to evolve.
For information about adoption law, follow my adoption blog here.
Surrogacy in Missouri
John and Mary married with the intention of starting a family right away. They bought a big house with the expectation of having several children and a happy, big family. But then they discovered that Mary would never be able to bring a child to term, and their dreams seemed doomed. They considered adopting, but while researching Missouri adoption laws they came across information about surrogacy, and slowly the idea took shape in their minds. Gestational Surrogacy, after all, would be a way to bring a child into the world who shared their DNA – as opposed to Independent Surrogacy, which would involve the eggs and DNA of the surrogate mother. It did not take long for them to switch their resources over to finding the right surrogate.
Their lawyer warned the couple that the law in Missouri was far from settled on the issue of surrogacy. Unlike Missouri adoption information, the information on surrogacy was far from complete, especially if it was a compensated surrogacy. The introduction of money into any arrangement complicates things. Their lawyer assured them that the courts were generally favorable to surrogacy issues, but this still sounded risky to John and Mary. Still, they couldn’t abandon their dream– and began to selection process.
John and Mary found the process of finding a gestational surrogate was very much like the world’s hardest job interview! They set up appointments, and the prospective surrogates asked the questions. It was important that everyone be comfortable with each other – this was an incredibly intimate connection they were forging and they would spend a lot of time together over the next several months.
When they met Jane, their dreams were answered. Jane was a confident, cheerful young woman who told them she took part in the surrogacy process not just for the money, but for the joy she brought to families. Jane was warm and friendly and obviously a very stable and happy person. They trusted and liked her immediately. John and Mary with their Missouri adoption lawyer worked out the agreement and the process began!