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With the advent of IVF and related techniques, many infertility issues once considered insurmountable are being addressed with great success. Most clinics now boast of IVF success rates in the range of thirty to sixty percent. But, IVF is still not a cure for infertility, nor is it an exact science, as each couple and situation is unique. Therefore, during IVF treatments, couples harvest multiple eggs and produce many embryos; those embryos that are not used in the first transfer are frozen for future attempts. These frozen embryos are the substance of hope for the infertile couple. If the couple conceives without using all of the stored embryos, they may choose to have the remaining unused embryos donated or placed for adoption, thereby allowing other infertile couples the experience of pregnancy and birth.
Embryo adoption is a relatively new process in which individuals who have frozen embryos that they do not plan on using to build their families agree to release the embryos for transfer to a recipient couple. The adopting family may either be known or anonymous to the donors. The intent is that the embryos will be transferred into the womb of the recipient mother, so that she and her husband may bear a child and be that child's parents.
The number of embryos currently in storage in the United States is estimated at approximately 400,000. Of this number, approximately 88% is still being used by the creating parents for their own family building efforts, yet the potential ramifications of the remaining 22%, or 88,000 embryos, cannot be overlooked or underestimated. Assuming a frozen embryo transfer success rate of only 30%, these 88,000 embryos could result in the birth of more than 26,000 children to other infertile couples!
