Abstract: Embryo donation (ED) is the donation by a couple who have surplus embryos following IVF to another infertile person/s. There has been much debate as to whether ED can be understood as adoption, as these viewpoints evoke different health and welfare concerns and implications for the various parties. Reproductive technologies create new and diverse family forms, and the ways in which families created by embryo adoption.

The Medical definition of bioethics includes the study of what is right and wrong in new discoveries and techniques in biology, such as the implantation of organs. According to an online article “Embryo ‘Adoption’ Is Growing, but It’s Getting Tangled in the Abortion Debate” from The New York Times, on Feb 17, 2019, it discusses an assisted reproductive technology called in-vitro fertilization that can help a women have a child by undergoing the in-vitro fertilization process. The focus of this article is embryo donation for adoption, an option for frozen embryos. The ethical issues surrounding the option for adoption of frozen embryos, which is an excellent option for those who are unable to bear a child. However, some people may believes that it play against the will of God, and, leads to waste of many embryos and discrimination when it come to choose a donor and recipient.

Adoption has long been an option for hopeful parents to grow their families and experience all of the joys of raising a child of their own. However, due to the advances in reproductive technology, the newest form of adoption has been created which called the embryo adoption. By definition, embryo adoption is a form of adoption that allows the adoptive mother to carry her genetically unrelated child and experience every part of pregnancy. This new advancement gives adoptive parents a chance to begin the process of nine months of pregnancy by adopting a frozen embryo donated by a couple who has been through in vitro fertilization (I.V.F). These frozen embryos are created through IVF. It is a process by which an egg and sperm are removed from the body and the sperm externally fertilize the egg to create an embryo, which is then implanted into the woman’s body. Some people believes this process as  play against the will of God because the woman didn’t conceive naturally. However, from this cycle, it is possible to create many embryos and the unused embryos can be frozen in liquid nitrogen for use in the future. These unused embryos donated for scientific research or donated to another person or couple who is interested in embryo adoption. Although, the unused embryos saved for later use but some may concern or seen this as waste of an embryo. There is also an issue on choosing a donor and recipient for embryo adoption. The decision of the traditional adoption model state that “those donating embryos are often involved in selecting who receives them”. This allowing donors to have control over who gets their embryos would help them feel better about giving them up but this leads to discrimination against another group of people who might be from different culture or religion and want to adopt embryos. In this case, a recipient might need to find suitable donors based on their cultural or religion which is ethically wrong.

The numbers of embryos are continuously growing and embryo adoption and IVF are becoming more popular and the annual number of donor transfers rose as well and it is continuing to increase. It giving an individual, infertile couple or couple whether single people, gay couples and others the chance to experience having their own child. Even though a frozen embryo cannot be considered as a person but there shouldn’t be an issue by calling it  “embryo adoption, we give too much personhood to the embryo,” said Kimberly Tyson. Also, every embryo has the right to life because if given the chance, it has the potential to become a person, a child and eventually an autonomous adult. Therefore, embryos do have moral worth and that all embryos deserve an equal amount of respect as all human being does.

The ultimate goal of embryo adoption is to provide as many frozen embryos as possible with the opportunity of life. Therefore, I do believe that embryo adoption techniques in biology are ethical due to the fact that it is giving an opportunity to hopeful parents seeking to form their own family and experience the same feelings as if they are bearing their own child rather than adopting an infant that is already born. The embryo adoption is the best way to spread happiness amongst those who are incapable of fertile naturally.

Reference

Lester, Caroline. “Embryo ‘Adoption’ Is Growing, but It’s Getting Tangled in the Abortion

Debate.” The New York Times, New York Times, 17 Feb. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/02/17/health/embryo-adoption-donated-snowflake.html.