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THE LEGALITY OF EMBRYO ADOPTION
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What services does Nightlight Christian Adoptions (NCA) offer? NCA is licensed to provide the following services:
Is Nightlight™ a non-profit agency? Yes, NCA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit agency. All fees paid by adoptive parents as well as any fundraising efforts throughout the year cover all agency expenses. What is your licensure information? Nightlight Christian Adoptions has been licensed by the California State Department of Social Services since 1959. Nightlight’s Homestudy services are available to families within Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura Counties. What if we are not Christians; will you still work with us to find a family for our embryos? The “Christian” in our name explains who we are; it does not necessarily describe who our clients are. We work with families from all religious backgrounds. We need all types of families to meet the various adopting and donating parents’ criteria. How is “embryo adoption” through Nightlight different from “embryo donation” that clinics offer? Embryo donation is a program fertility clinics offer. It differs from adoption in that the receiving family does not have a homestudy prepared, the embryo donor families are anonymous, and there is no contact between the families before or after birth, even through an intermediary. Snowflakes™ goes beyond the embryo donation provided by fertility clinics by offering the safeguards and education available in a traditional adoption. A homestudy is prepared on the adopting family that includes screening and education. The donating family is responsible for selecting a family to raise their genetic child (as opposed to the doctor in a clinic making the selection of a family), and they will know if a child(ren) is born from the adopted embryos. Our program recognizes the importance of counseling all parties involved. Most importantly, at Nightlight we recognize the personhood of embryos and we treat them as precious pre-born children. Why would we choose embryo adoption instead of donation? Snowflakes™ provides the same safeguards that the traditional adoption process offers. You will know that the family you have chosen to parent your pre-born child(ren) has been screened for a criminal history and child abuse record, as well as received education about how to parent an adopted child. You have the peace of mind of having handpicked a family to raise your genetic child. You also have the opportunity to have contact with your adopting family to whatever extent you both are comfortable. Why would adopting parents choose embryo adoption instead of donation? The adopting family has a chance to have a relationship with their child’s genetic family. Whether they exchange picture and letters, have telephone conversations, or choose to meet you, the adopting family will know that they have access to information about their child’s history. The agency is available to facilitate communication between the families. The agency is also available to educate and work with both families about how to talk to their child(ren) about their unique conception and adoption-related issues. Why would adopting parents choose embryo adoption instead of the traditional adoption of a newborn? The most obvious difference between an embryo adoption and a traditional adoption is the pregnancy experience. Adoptive moms are able to experience the joys (and burdens!) of pregnancy and labor. They have the peace of mind of knowing their child was not exposed to alcohol or drugs during pregnancy. Although an embryo adoption allows more control in some ways, it provides less in other ways. Couples cannot choose the gender of the child as they might in an international or older child adoption, and they can’t change their mind and not accept the baby if he or she is born with a medical or developmental illness or condition. In addition, because up to three embryos are implanted at once, they might have twins or triplets. Embryo adoption can also be more difficult emotionally than traditional adoption, since there is no guarantee that in the end a family will have a child. How many embryo adoptions has Nightlight completed? To date Nightlight has matched 289 donating families (with approx. 2,092 embryos) with 192 adopting families. There are 118 Snowflakes children and 19 adopting families are currently expecting 25 babies. Are there any other agencies that offer Embryo Adoption? Nightlight Christian Adoptions and Nightlight Christian Adoptions of Virginia are the only adoption agencies in the country (that we are aware of) that offer Embryo Adoption with all of the same procedures and safeguards of a traditional domestic adoption. Does Nightlight encourage the creation and freezing of embryos? No, we are trying to provide a loving option to the families of the 400,000 embryos frozen in clinics throughout the United States. Does the age of the embryos (date frozen) affect our ability to place them for adoption? No, there have been no definitive studies proving how long embryos can stay frozen and remain viable. We have had successful pregnancies with embryos frozen for 10 years. We believe each embryo, no matter its age, is a precious life that should be given the opportunity to grow. If we used Donor Egg or Sperm in the creation of our embryos can we place them through Snowflakes? Yes, we just need you to obtain copies of your donor profile, contract and infectious disease screen results. We will provide a copy of the donor profile to the adopting family along with the family health history that you provide. We need a copy of the donor contract to verify that your embryos are eligible for adoption and are not specified in your contract for your use only. The infectious disease results are necessary for the adopting family’s clinic to accept the embryos into their clinic for transfer to the adoptive family. Does Snowflakes handle out-of-state embryo adoptions? Yes. We can work with families living in any state. Can you work with us if we live in, or our embryos are stored in, another country? This is handled on a case-by-case basis. We have worked with embryo donor families in Canada and Australia, however we encourage you to contact our office and speak to someone in the Snowflakes Program to discuss your specific situation. We are just beginning IVF – if we have remaining embryos, will you work with us? Yes. We would be an outlet for the disposition of any remaining embryos. Please contact our office to ensure that you will meet our requirements. Our clinic wants to know exactly what we would want done with our frozen embryos if we were to die before we were able to transfer all of our embryos. Can we indicate that we want our embryos to go to Nightlight, ONLY in the case of our deaths? Yes. We will need you to fill out the questionnaire, provide us with a biography and photo collage and establish what your criteria are for an adopting family. You will need to sign documents for our files stating that it is your wish for us to place your embryos for adoption in the event of your death. You will need to incorporate your wishes into your will and make our questionnaire an attachment so that the executor can make sure your wishes are fulfilled. You will also need to notify your clinic and have subsequent infectious disease tests performed as well as sign any documents they require to release your embryos to our agency. Please contact our office for additional information. |
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Are there any costs for us to place our embryos for adoption? There are no agency or program fees for you to place your embryos for adoption. There may be costs incurred during the adoption process if medical records need to be copied or if additional blood work is required, depending on what types of tests have been performed. However, we will reimburse you for these. Are we reimbursed any of our costs for treatment? No. Adopting families do not pick up any costs prior to being matched with you. As with a traditional domestic adoption, only expenses directly related to the pregnancy may be covered. In the case of an embryo adoption, the adopting family is only responsible for the cost of any blood work you must have performed which is necessary to transport your embryos to the adopting family’s clinic. Does the adopting family help with any of the storage fees? No. Once a match is made, the embryos are shipped to the adopting family's clinic at the expense of Nightlight Christian Adoptions. Depending on how many embryos you have, there may be a chance that any remaining embryos would again become your responsibility for storage fees and selection of another family. |
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What are the steps involved in placing my embryos for adoption? 1. Application Phase
2. Pre-Matching Interview with the Social Worker: Once we receive all your application materials, our social worker will contact you to discuss with you the criteria you would like your prospective adoptive family to have as well as the relationship you envision with them. 3. Matching Phase: We will send you a profile of an adoptive family that meets your preferences. You will let us know whether or not you are comfortable placing your embryos with them. Once you've selected a family, we will send your Family Profile and medical health history to them. If they are comfortable adopting your embryos, we have a match! 4. Contract Phase: We will send you an Embryo Relinquishment document and an Embryo Adoption Agreement to be signed and notarized designating the placement of your embryos with the family you have selected. 5. Travel coordination (and possible blood testing): We will send the embryology reports and infectious disease test results to the adoptive family's doctor. The doctor will let us know if there are any infectious disease test results he or she needs before the embryos can be accepted into the new facility. We will contact you and provide you with a script if it is necessary for you to do additional blood testing. Once the doctor has all necessary test results, we can schedule a date for the embryos to travel. Please be sure you have filled out an embryo release form to allow your clinic to release your embryos for travel. 6. Post-Placement: In accordance with your wishes, we will contact you with any information regarding the outcome of the frozen embryo transfer and/or birth and development of the child(ren). What are the current requirements for blood testing? You must agree to do any blood testing required by the adopting parents' doctor. If you had blood testing done for infectious diseases when your in-vitro fertilization occurred, but have not had blood testing done at least six months after that date, MORE THAN LIKELY you will be asked to have your blood drawn and tested again. If you get this done early in the process, it helps the adoption go more quickly. The current ASRM and FDA mandated blood tests include:
Why do we need to provide a Family Profile? Your family profile allows the adoptive family to get to know a little bit about you, just as their profile allowed you to get to know them. Depending upon the relationship you maintain with your adoptive family, it will also be something they can share with any children born as part of the story of their adoption and birth. How long after we let you know that we want to place our embryos through your agency will we be matched with an adopting family? It depends how quickly we receive all your application documents. We will only present a prospective adoptive family to you for your consideration after we have received copies of your medical blood work results and embryology reports (and if applicable, any sperm or egg donor information). You must also have spoken with the Snowflakes social worker regarding the adoption of your embryos before we will begin the matching process. But rest assured that we will work diligently to match you with someone as soon as possible. However, the timing will fluctuate depending on your criteria and the families currently in our program. If after four weeks we have not found a suitable match, we will call you to let you know why you have not yet been sent a profile. How long before the embryos are moved from our clinic? Again it depends on how quickly we receive your completed Embryo Relinquishment and Adoption Agreement as well as the adopting family's Adoption Agreement. If there are subsequent blood tests required of you by the adopting family's clinic, the sooner you have the tests completed and the results sent to us, the sooner we will be able to arrange the embryos' travel. Once we have received everything we need to authorize the embryos' travel, and releases have been signed and notarized at your clinic, we can typically have them at the adopting family's clinic within 3-4 weeks. Is there a way for us to expedite the process? Yes. You could choose to have the agency select the family who will adopt your embryos for you. However, you would still need to complete all the application paperwork and the pre-matching interview. You may also significantly speed up the process by obtaining and completing all your paperwork in a timely manner. |
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What are the basic requirements for an adopting family? The agency requires that the adopting family must have completed a Homestudy. This study is the same Homestudy used to evaluate and educate adopting parents in traditional Domestic adoptions. The adopting mother must also be able to carry a child to term. Additional eligibility requirements are listed on the enclosed form. In addition, we will ask you to establish criteria for the family you wish to place your embryos for adoption with. These criteria include: religion, educational background, number of other children in the family, length of marriage, any prior marriages, age of adopting parents, work plans following birth, ethnic background, financial position or anything else that is important to you in selecting a family for your pre-born child(ren). Can single parents adopt through Snowflakes? On the application we ask if you are open to placing with a single mom. Since Snowflakes began in 1997 we have had few families open to placing with a single mom and have yet to work with a single adoptive mother. Single men are ineligible to adopt through Snowflakes at this time as it would require the use of a surrogate to carry the baby. Can couples who do not have an infertility diagnosis adopt embryos? Yes, however you will decide to place your embryos with a family who is looking to expand their family through embryo adoption whether or not they have experienced infertility. The number of existing children in the adoptive family may or may not be a factor you also consider during the selection process. What Is A Homestudy? The mandatory Homestudy adoptive families must complete is required by the state for all adoptions and is an evaluation and education tool to help us determine the adoptive family’s preparedness to parent through adoption. It typically consists of 80% education and 20% screening. There are 3 parts to the Homestudy including: paperwork (fingerprinting, references, medical evaluations, etc.); education (through the social worker, CPR/First Aid classes, adoption classes, books, etc.) and interviews with a social worker. The most important component is the educational portion as families explore their attitudes, plans and feelings regarding adoption and how they will explain their child’s unique conception and birth. |
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How are we and adopting families matched? Both you and prospective adopting parents provide Nightlight with information about yourselves and indicate what type of adopting/donating family they are looking for. You will indicate your preferences regarding the age, income, work plans, religion, prior marriages, and race of the adopting families, as well as your desire for future contact. If we have an adopting family on file that matches those criteria, their Family Profile is sent to you for consideration/selection. If the adopting family is selected by you, then your Family Profile and medical information is sent to the adopting family for consideration/selection. If all parties agree, a match has occurred. Does this type of adoption have to be open adoption? Open adoption encompasses a wide spectrum of contact. We do not require that you meet, exchange last names or other identifying information, but we do ask that at a minimum you select each other through a letter, biographies, and photos. By virtue of having this information about the other family, all our adoptions are considered open. Whether you want more contact (via e-mail, phone, photos, letters, sent either directly or through the agency) or less contact, we will match you with a like-minded family. Our social workers are available to answer any questions or concerns you may have. You may also choose to be connected with families who have placed embryos and are willing to talk with other families about their experiences. If you are interested in this option, please contact our office. What if we would prefer an alternate arrangement? Would you still be able to help us place our embryos for adoption? We will do our best to accommodate your wishes. We would still need you to provide our office with all the necessary paperwork to place your embryos for adoption. Please contact our office for more information. May adoptive families be on a traditional adoption list AND work with embryo adoption? Once an adoptive family is ready to be matched with a donating family, we require that they work with only one adoption program. At that point the family needs to be ready to commit to the embryos (or birthparents) they are matched with. How is embryo adoption different from traditional adoption concerning risk? Embryo donating parents differ from a “typical” traditional birthparent in several ways. In most traditional adoption cases birthparents are not married; while donating parents are married (although we have also worked with parents who are divorced, widowed or single). A woman placing her born child for adoption may be unprepared for the emotions she will feel upon her child’s birth and may choose to parent her baby. In an embryo adoption the donating parents are typically older, have a family, understand the demands of parenting a child or children and fully understand that they cannot emotionally and/or financially add additional children to their family. Most embryo donating families have had time to contemplate their options while their embryos are in storage before they contact us. What if we decide that we cannot place our embryos for adoption? If you have doubts about placing your embryos, we ask that you contact our office immediately and we will place your file on hold. Once you are matched, you will sign a relinquishment which transfers your ownership rights to the embryos, before they travel to the adoptive family’s clinic. You have three business days from the date you sign the relinquishment in which to notify the agency that you no longer wish to place your embryos. Approximately how long does it take to get matched and to get to the travel stage?
How many embryos will the Adoptive Family be matched with in total? The number of embryos you have will determine the number of embryos a family receives. The adopting family adopts all of the embryos that their donating family has. However, our policy is that every adoptive family adopts a minimum of six embryos with which to begin their transfer process. Because our goal is for the adoptive family to have the best chance at pregnancy, they may be matched with two donating families to achieve this goal. How did the agency decide on the number six? The number six is based on the statistical success of embryo transfer from frozen embryos. The statistical reports from various clinics suggest a 50% success rate in thawing and 30% success rate in implantation. Therefore, if half of the six embryos survive thawing (resulting in three embryos transferred) the subsequent implantation rate of 30% would suggest that potentially one child would be born from the transfer of those three embryos. The statistics give us a starting point. There is no guarantee that a child will be born from every six embryos nor can there be a promise that multiples are not born. Based on these statistics, we have set six to be the number of embryos a family adopts. Can the Adoptive Family specify a specific embryo gender to adopt? No! Each of the embryos in our program are equally important and therefore we do not require that they undergo the genetic testing necessary to determine the sex of the embryo. Therefore just like in other pregnancies families will be “surprised” with the sex of the baby. Will Snowflakes work with us if we have only one or two frozen embryos? And if so, will you support a process where the adopting family would receive embryos from multiple embryo donating parents? Yes. We match at least 6 embryos to each adoptive family and will match an adopting family with 2 donating families to achieve that number. The adopting family would have to agree to work with small numbers and all parties would have to agree to possibly mix embryos in utero. If a baby is then born, we would request the adoptive family perform DNA testing to confirm the identity of the embryo parents. |
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Do we send the embryos to your facility? No! We are not a storage facility, we are an adoption agency. When will the embryos be transported? Embryos will travel to the adopting family's clinic after families are matched, after the adoption agreement and relinquishments are signed, and after we have made sure that all the requirements of the clinic, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and of the state into which they are being transferred have been met. How do the embryos travel? The embryos will be shipped via Federal Express in a dry shipper. A dry shipper is a tank filled with liquid Nitrogen that keeps the embryos safe while traveling. |
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How many embryos may be transferred per cycle? We require that our families limit the number of embryos transferred to the number that they are willing to carry to term in the event that all the embryos attach. Generally, we encourage families to transfer no more than 3 embryos. If an adoptive family becomes pregnant with multiples, may they selectively reduce the pregnancy? We specifically require that our adopting families agree not to selectively reduce the number of fetuses that have begun developing. For this reason we recommend not transferring more than three embryos at a time. If our prohibition against selective reduction at any stage, for any reason, makes you uncomfortable, Snowflakes may not be right for you. What is the success rate for thawing and viability of embryos? 1,497 embryos have been thawed for transfer of which 814 were viable, therefore the overall thawing success rate of Snowflakes is 54%. However, the success rate for frozen embryo transfer varies by each clinic. The national average overall thaw success rate is 51%. What is the likelihood of a multiple pregnancy with frozen embryo transfer? Our understanding is that multiple births are much rarer with frozen embryo cycles than with “fresh” embryo transfers. But this is in no way a guarantee that families will not have multiples. About 1/3 of the Snowflakes moms who have achieved a pregnancy have carried multiples. What is the success rate of pregnancies among Snowflakes families who have had embryo transfers? To date, 146 families had completed 222 transfers resulting in 104 pregnancies. 118 children have been born [76 families (including 8 families with sibling pregnancies): 26 sets of twins, 3 sets of triplets], and 19 more moms are due with 25 babies (including 4 sets of twins and 1 set of triplets). And there are always families with recent transfers awaiting pregnancy test results and more families scheduling transfers in the next few months. |
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Will we be notified of the outcome of our adoptive family’s transfer attempts? Unless you have indicated to our office otherwise, or have direct contact with your adoptive family, we will contact you to tell you the outcome of the adoptive family’s embryo transfer as soon as we have information for you. If pregnancy is achieved will we be notified when the baby is born? Yes. Once we have heard from the adoptive parents, we will notify you of the baby’s birth. What kind of contact will we have with the Adoptive Family after the child(ren) are born? During your pre-matching interview with the social worker you will have indicated what type of contact arrangement you would like with the adopting family and we will match you accordingly. You may have chosen to correspond through the agency or directly to each other. Many of our families communicate through e-mail. As your relationship grows you may choose to expand the arrangement you initially had with the family. What if pregnancy is achieved and there are still embryos remaining? All embryos will be released to the adoptive family in a relinquishment and they will initially have one year in which to thaw and transfer as many embryos as are needed. If more time is needed, we will request that you sign another relinquishment for specified length of time. If the adoptive family decides that they are unable to keep the embryos for use at a later date, the responsibility for the embryos reverts back to you, and you will be responsible for deciding how you wish to use your embryos, whether for yourself, or placing them with another family. What if a pregnancy is not achieved? If an adoptive family does not become pregnant after thawing and/or implantation of all the embryos adopted, they can decide if they want to continue with Snowflakes and be re-matched another embryo family or use their Homestudy to pursue a domestic or international adoption. How many post placement reports are required after the birth of the child(ren)? We require that adoptive families complete one post placement report at 3 months old through their homestudy agency. In addition, we require that they provide us with pictures and updates of the child(ren) three additional times during the first year, two times during the second year and once a year thereafter. This correspondence should be separate from the information they share with you and serves as our way of knowing your genetic child is healthy and happy, and can help us provide the adoptive family with any additional services or referrals as necessary. |
