A home for frozen embryos
Enter Nightlight Christian Adoptions in Fullerton, Calif., and you'll see wingback chairs upholstered in a teddy bear print and a reminder that the Snowflakes program could be "an incredible option for the future of your embryos." When they came up with the name, says agency spokesperson JoAnn Eiman, it seemed to fit because each embryo is "fragile, unique."
Snowflakes is an embryo adoption program, one of the first in the country, with some 300 active adoptive parents enrolled in the program and a half-dozen parents who have donated embryos that were frozen for implantation but never used. Nightlight credits much of its success to a $1 million federal grant--administered by the Department of Health and Human Services--to increase public awareness of embryo adoption programs. The organization received half of the grant, and so far at Snowflakes, 45 women have given birth to 62 babies.
But there are objections to calling Snowflakes an adoption program. "I think you can adopt children. Someone can give you an embryo," says George Annas, chair of the department of health, law, bioethics, and human rights at the Boston University School of Public Health. Controversial, too, is the fact that Snowflakes will not disclose the quality of the embryos to recipient parents. "We don't guarantee grade A embryos," says Eiman. "We match according to the criteria of the family, not the quality of the embryos." What's more, recipient parents must agree not to perform selective reduction, so that if three embryos are implanted and all three become viable, the recipient may not abort any of them.
Egg on ice. Debbie Struiksma of Long Beach, Calif., heard about Snow-flakes at a baby shower. "It really captured my imagination," says the 29-year-old, who began experiencing early menopause two years ago. She and her husband, Brian, felt the cost was reasonable, at about $10,000, which included a program fee of $4,000, a home inspection visit, medication, and the frozen embryo transfer fee. Some 60 percent of embryos survive the thaw, and there is a 22 percent implantation rate of success.
Debbie and Brian submitted an autobiography to the agency, and as soon as they read it, Dwight and Lori Webster of Carlsbad, Calif., knew they had found the parents for their frozen embryos. Dwight and Lori had frozen embryos in anticipation of an IVF attempt when Lori learned she was pregnant naturally. With no further plans for fertility treatment, the couple donated the embryos to Snowflakes.
Nearly half the couples that come through the door go home with a baby, Eiman says, and with a November due date, Debbie and Brian will be one of them. -Anna Mulrine
This story appears in the September 27, 2004 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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