Prometheus 6

Quote of note:

One couple, Ms. Crockin said, who had had two children through in vitro fertilization, wanted to donate their extra embryos to friends in their neighborhood. "They came in to me to do what they thought at the outset was a simple legal task of 'make it happen,' " Ms. Crockin said. "Instead, after really exploring what this might mean to their existing children, what it might mean for the resulting child, how would they deal with the children they were raising and this child who was going to be raised down the street, they couldn't reach a comfort level. The wife called me in tears: 'We want to do this, we want to be generous, I feel selfish, but I can't do this.' "

It's Not So Easy to Adopt an Embryo
By PAM BELLUCK

BOSTON   It sounds like a terrific solution to a thorny consequence of infertility treatment: take the extra embryos created during in vitro fertilization treatment for one couple, and donate them to other couples who are having trouble conceiving children but who desperately want them.

The woman receiving the embryos could give birth to a child, and the donating couples, after having their own babies, could take satisfaction in their generosity.

"When we first began talking about embryo donation, I thought, 'Oh my gosh, this is going to be the best thing since sliced bread,' " said Peg Beck, a social worker in Belmont, Mass., who counsels couples on fertility issues. "I thought it was going to be a wonderful way for solving a real quandary for these couples who were wondering what to do with their excess embryos."

But Ms. Beck and others who work with fertility patients found that it was a lot more complicated than they had expected.

Relatively few couples ultimately decide to donate their embryos to another couple.

"When couples are coming into in vitro, and they are asked what they would want to do with leftover embryos, they might say, 'Oh yeah, donating to another couple - if we could help prevent another couple from going through the agony and the pain of what we've been through, we would be willing to do that,' " said Dr. Susan C. Klock, associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and psychiatry at Northwestern University's medical school.

But 3 to 10 years later, 9 out of 11 couples who had said they would donate to another couple were no longer willing to do so, Dr. Klock said.

Others have seen similar results. "Of the dozen or 15 cases I've handled where people have considered donating embryos to another couple, over half of those cases never went forward," said Susan L. Crockin, a Boston lawyer.