Embryo Adoption Brings Hope To Infertile Couples

Reported by: Shawn Ley  9News  March 3, 2004

Embyros for adoption (WCPO/WCPO.com) JoAnn Eiman, embryo adoption advocate (WCPO/WCPO.com) Dr. Glen Hoffman (WCPO/WCPO.com) Donielle and Jim Brinkman (WCPO/WCPO.com)

As many couples in the Tri-state struggle with trying to have a child, a Christian group is trying to shed more light on what it's calling "embryo adoption."

They call it hope for infertile couples.

By some estimates, there are 400,000 embryos frozen in the United States.

For some couples utilizing in-vetro fertilization, what to do with embryos not used by their doctor becomes a major moral issue.

"It's hard to look at a photograph of four embryos, knowing that two of them are now playing in your house and just summarily discarding the other two. It's well, it's inconsistent in my mind," said Bob Burnett, donating embryos.

"I couldn't have these babies and I couldn't give them away. I couldn't, I couldn't just let them go away. I had to do something that made sense. And embryo donation was, as we came through all that, the thing that made a lot of sense," said Betty Burnett, donating embryos.

An adoption agency in California has created a service that matches couples who have leftover embryos with other infertile couples trying to have children.

It's legal and the service called "Snowflakes" considers the embryos "pre-born children in waiting."

"So the families that place the embryos have the chance to share the hope of parenting, share the hope of a child with another infertile couple," said JoAnn Eiman, embryo adoption advocate.

Locally, the Bethesda Fertility Center said donating and accepting embryos is nothing new.

Dr. Glen Hoffman said many couples locally have donated embryos anonymously and many others want them.

The Snowflakes agency promotes itself as an open adoption, encouraging people like Donielle and Jim Brinkman to know the people where their embryo is coming from.

"So finding an option that combined adopting a child that, that needed a home, that needed a loving family on top of getting to carry that child was just the perfect opportunity for us," Brinkman said.

Dr. Hoffman at Bethesda advised the most important aspect of donating and accepting embryos is counseling to avoid remorse before the donated embryo is implanted.