What are the options available? What are the questions you really need to ask yourself? What are the logistics of donating embryos to research? To another couple? Can one just keep paying the cryopreservation fee indefinitely to avoid making a decision?

I don’t have the answers to these questions, but Dawn Davenport at www.findingyourchild.com is facilitating a three-part podcast (May 21, May 29, June 4) that brings experts together to start the discussion. The first pod cast will take place today from noon-1 p.m. EST.

Have a look at this amazing line up. If you’d like to submit your own questions to the panels, you can forward them to dawn@findingyourchild.com.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008
12-1 p.m. EST
Introduction: The options, the ethical and legal Issues involved (Part 1):

Anne Drapkin Lyerly, M.D., M.A.
Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and
Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities, and History of Medicine,
Duke Universityand lead author of latest research on preferences for embryo disposition

Nanette Elster
Genetic and Reproductive Health Attorney
Director of Health Law Institute, DePaul University College of Law

Michael J. Tucker, Ph.D., H.C.L.D., F.I. Biol.
Scientific Director, Georgia Reproductive Specialists
Scientific Director, Shady Grove Reproductive Science Center

Wednesday May 28, 2008
12-1 p.m. EST
Donating Embryos to Another Infertile Couple (Part 2):

Jeffrey Keenan, M.D.
Medical Director, Southeastern Fertility Clinic
Director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, University of Tennessee College of Medicine
Medical Director of the National Embryo Donation Center

Ruth F. Claiborne
Claiborne, Outman & Surmay, Atlanta, GA
Attorney specializing in Reproductive Technology and Adoption Law

Deborah Bohn
IVF patient and embryo donor

Wednesday, June 4, 2008
12-1 p.m. EST
Donating Embryos to Research (Part 3):

Dr. Marie Csete, M.D., PhD
Chief Scientific Officer, California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM)

Shehua Shen, M.D., ELD (ABB), TS (ABB)
Assistant Adjunct Professor, UCSF
Director, UCSF Embryology Laboratory

Judith F. Daar
Professor of Law, Whittier Law School,
Professor of Medicine, University of California Irvine College of Medicine
Author of Reproductive Technologies and the Law

Post from: Blisstree

Navigating the Cold of Cryopreservation and What to Do with “Extra” Embryos

Here are the choices: Keep the embryos to try another pregnancy. Donate them top another couple. Donate them to research. Destroy them.

Before any embryos were even in question, before any ART was even begun, my husband and I had to sign pages and pages of papers instructing our clinic what we wanted done with ours. Every scenario was played out – in case of my death, in case of his death, in case of divorce….who gets what and what shall we do with these? (I’ve found, you have to keep these serious conversations lighthearted and peppered with some humor because they can get incredibly heavy.) But having the discussions beforehand are so necessary. Remember what happened to Natalie Evans?

There was an article in my alumni magazine this month written by a couple debating this question now that they have two healthy children and aren’t planning on more. Leah Kaplan wrote:

I lacked the requisite combination of detachment and magnanimity to offer them up to research. Nor was I prepared to donate them, anonymously or otherwise, to another couple…Destroying the embryos seemed no better option. My recent membership in the “mothers of multiples” club notwithstanding, I still identified with my friends of “advanced maternal age,” women whose infertility ordeals I shared for so long. Discarding what they were still struggling to achieve felt like an affront.

In the end, Leah and her husband decide to “keep paying the bill” for their cryopreservation. But what happens when there is a couple who want to donate their embryos to another couple trying to conceive and are stymied because their clinic failed to meet donor blood testing time lines set forth in new FDA regulations made effective in 2005? What happens when a couple is told they can do nothing with their embryos, at least not in the USA?

This is the question my friend Daisy is asking. Please go visit her at Behind Schedule to read the details and share any info you may have.

Post from: Blisstree

Donating Embryos

If you aren’t among the lucky customers of the other 10%, there are places you can go to apply for financial assistance with your fertility treatments. Several fertility clinics offer shared cycle programs which defray the costs of using donor eggs. If you are planning to use in vitro fertilization (IVF), the International Council on Infertility Information Dissemination, Inc (INCID) offers scholarships to those in financial need.

For women (and men) who are about to undergo cancer treatment and want to look into preserving their eggs or sperm for future attempts at having a family, Fertile Hope may be able to help. For those of us who completed our treatments before cryopreservation was an option, the SAMFund for Young Adult Survivors of Cancer offers grants and scholarships every year to help cover medical and other expenses – including those related to fertility treatments.

Of course, I have an application pending.

Post from: Blisstree

Financial Assistance for Fertility Treatments