embryo adoption

legally- it is considered an adoption. lawyer fees, contracts, and sometimes, an agency. so i'd classify it under adoption...

Could you elaborate on the "legally" reference? Not saying you're wrong, but i can't imagine this passing as an adoption when questioned in a court case I could be wrong, but i can't see how a court would rule that you can adoption someething that's not alive. And per roe v wade, life does not begin at conception, but when it's viable. if a court rules an embryo CAN be adopted, it would have far reaching legal complications it completely sounds like a fertility treatment to me. its more in alignment with an egg and/or spearm donor, in my mind

I know someone who has done this process...myself :) I consider it fertility treatments because I do not believe life begins at conception but when the fetus is able to live outside of the womb independently. But then again, I am vehemently pro-choice so that effects my beliefs greatly. A lot of the people who advocate embryo adoption are really trying to push pro-life agenda on prospective parents by saying these embryos are human beings when they actually aren't.Legally speaking, it is considered a transfer of personal property... like egg donation or bone marrow donation. Adoption can only occur with children already born and have legal birth certificates.

thanks for the responses so far. Legally, adoption laws actually do not apply. Some adoption agencies take advantage of their pro-life stance and treat the process as an adoption, requiring homestudies and the like, but it is totally possible to do a donor embryo transfer without involving adoption agencies or their permission (and expenses). As for the legal costs, there is a legal contract that deals with the transfer of property, so the embies are legally considered property, thus necessitating the legal transfer, although it does outline the fact that parental rights are given up as well. I was actually thinking more along the lines of how you would breech the subject with the child regarding their origins, them having blood relatives "out there", a possible identity crisis... those kinds of things that I see could overlap with the issues faced by adopted kids.

my sister in law, who went through this process, had to have a legal contract drawn up, hire an attorney and file the documents with the court.AND, they had to travel to another state to have the transfer done, because, as they were told, there were legal issues within their own state... definitely a legal scenario...her two kids have always known where they come from and the fact that there are also 3 other kids in the world that came from their birthparents, but were adopted as embryos by 3 other couples and are alive and well...sister in law and brother in law have complete identifying info for the birthparents and plan to have the kids meet them in a few years.

sugarandspice - tried to send you a PM but your inbox is full :) mi75 - you bring up a good point - the annonymous vs known donor scenario. How much like open vs closed adoption would you say that is?

i definitely see the coorelation between open adoption and their embryo adoption. BUT, i don't see these kids struggle at all with the 'who am i" thing, or having issues with identity, abandonment, or any other issues that SOME adoptees have.(not that all adoptees feel these things, but SOME do). they see the people who donated them as embryos as JUST people who donated embryos. not any sort of attachment to them as 'parents'. BUT, then again, they do talk about the other kids out there as their 'genetic sibs". ( i think this term was started by SIL and BIL).

I cleaned it out. sorry...

mi75 - I've seen otherwise. Donor conceived sometimes do refer to their donors as genetic or bio "parents", and at least one I read about even went so far as make the connection bw her sperm donor and a dead beat dad. Obviously, you won't have the attachment issues or maybe even abandonment issues as you would with a regular adoption, but the fact remains that you (the donor conceived or adoptee) weren't raised by your biological relatives. There's a lot less that separates you from your parents, since you were with them starting with the pregnancy, but that genetic link seems to be very important to some people. Others not so much, of course, and this is true even with folks who were adopted. I guess I wonder if there would be any sympathy on an adoption forum for parents who are also raising non-biological children, but who entered their families much sooner than an adopted child of any age would. I hope I'm making sense!