A Very Early Adoption

Couples struggling with infertility often pursue in vitro fertilization – a process in which multiple eggs are harvested from a woman’s ovaries, fertilized in a lab and frozen until implanted in the womb. But with high success rates, often from even the first try, the procedure creates an ethical dilemma when many couples wonder what to do with extra, unused embryos still in storage.

Many families are given only three options: pay an annual fee to keep storing the embryos; donate them to research, where they will be killed during experimentation; or allow the clinic to destroy them outright. But there is an alternative: embryo adoption.

We explored the stories of families who donated and adopted embryos. We also took our cameras inside a medical practice and adoption agency that specialize in giving life to these preborn children. Learn more about embryo adoption.

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