Embryo Donation & Adoption Make Internet Debut

Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry
Article Date: 26 Mar 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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Awareness of embryo donation and adoption continues to spread nationwide as three educational videos hit Internet sites such as MySpace, YouTube, Facebook and even GodTube. A campaign directly targeted at fertility clinics will also increase awareness within the community most actively involved with the creation and storage of embryos.

The videos show the extraordinary moments of bringing a child into the world for the first time, and are part of an ongoing public awareness campaign by Nightlight Christian Adoptions (Nightlight) under a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. For couples that cannot naturally conceive and others struggling to decide what to do with remaining frozen embryos from fertility treatments, the videos provide clear-cut options.

"Difficult Decisions," "Special Moments" and "Embryos Become Babies" can also be viewed at http://www.embryoadoption.org/videos.cfm.

"From the start our goal was to pair embryos with parents whose arms were empty and eleven years later our goal remains the same," said Ronald Stoddart, executive director of Nightlight. "Embryo donation and adoption has been very successful and these videos illustrate this incredible process for both potential donor and adopting families."

Embryo donation and adoption is a relatively new practice in the United States. Nightlight, through its Snowflakes® program, has realized the birth of 165 babies since 1997 with more on the way. There are still an estimated 500,000 frozen embryos in storage across the country and progressively more are being donated for adoption every month.

Snowflakes® was the pioneer organization in embryo donation and adoption. The concept however has spread and many other clinics and adoption agencies are now offering programs.

For more information about embryo donation and adoption, visit http://www.embryoadoption.org.