|
Looking for a
Surrogate Mother or an egg donor?
This book
is a moving real-life account of one woman's struggle
with infertility and her journey through surrogacy to
have the family she desperately wanted.
Click here
for more details
Latest Surrogacy News
Now British couples
can adopt an embryo
By Mark Prigg,
Evening Standard
2 October 2003
Britain's first embryo adoption service is to be launched by
the end of the year.
An American company is
planning to bring the service to the UK to allow couples who
have undergone IVF treatment to offer any unwanted embryos
for adoption.
Following a screening
process, embryos are sent to prospective parents and
implanted into the surrogate mother's womb.
Until now there has been no easy way for two sets of
prospective parents to get in contact, despite the fact that
the process is believed to be legal in Britain.
Snowflakes, a Los
Angeles-based firm, has produced 32 children with the
service in America. The company screens both sets of parents
in the same way as a traditional adoption process.
The donor parents are able
to specify what kind of home they want their embryo to go to
and can veto parents they think unsuitable.
Snowflake charges $4,000
(£2,404) for the service, on top of which parents-have to
pay for a report on their homes and clinic fees for
implantation.
Pro-life groups have hailed
the move, calling it a "heroic act" and claiming it is
saving the lives of embryos that would otherwise be
discarded.
JoAnn Eiman, of Snowflakes,
said it had started the programme after hearing that in
Britain embryos are thrown away after five years unless the
parents ask for an extension to 10 years.
In an interview tonight
with Channel 4 News, Ms Eiman reveals plans to launch the
service worldwide.
Dr Alastair Sutcliffe, an
IVF expert at University College London's Royal Free
Hospital, said: "Medically, this is an incredibly
straightforward procedure. There is no guarantee the
procedure will result in a child."
back to top |
