Creating an Ethical Framework for Embryo Donation
With recent advances in assisted reproductive technology, the number of stored frozen embryos has grown exponentially. Increased public awareness, relatively low costs and higher success rates are leading more people to consider embryo donation as an option for family formation. Unfortunately, this emerging practice is almost entirely unregulated, with risks and uncertainty for all involved.
Based on the similarities to adoption, the Adoption Institute is taking a leadership role in developing policy and practice standards for embryo donation. These standards will address ethical, health and legal rights issues that affect donors, intended parents and resulting children. The Adoption Institute will educate policymakers, clinicians and consumers on the need to enact comprehensive laws to ensure that children born from this reproductive technology have access to information about their origins and health histories, and that the rights of biological and adoptive parents are balanced fairly.
Return to Examples of Service
