With the advent of IVF and related techniques, many infertility issues once considered insurmountable are being addressed with great success. Most clinics now boast of IVF success rates in the range of 30 - 60 percent. However, IVF is still not a cure for infertility, nor is it an exact science, as each couple and situation is unique. Therefore, during IVF treatments, couples harvest multiple eggs and produce many embryos; those embryos that are not used in the first transfer are frozen for future attempts. These frozen embryos represent hope for infertile couples. If the couple conceives without using all of the stored embryos, they may choose to have the remaining unused embryos donated or placed for adoption. This gracious act allows the child to be born and offers other infertile couples the experience of pregnancy and birth.

Embryo adoption is a relatively new process in which individuals who have their own frozen embryos agree to release them to the adopting couple. The adopting family may either be known or anonymous to the donors. The intent is that the embryos will be transferred into the womb of the adopting mother so that she and her husband may bear a child and be that child's parents.

The number of embryos currently in storage in the United States is approaching 500,000. Of this number, approximately 88 percent are still being used by the creating parents for their own family building efforts. Still, the potential ramifications of the remaining 12 percent, or 60,000 embryos, cannot be overlooked or underestimated. Assuming a frozen embryo transfer success rate of only 15%, these 60,000 embryos could result in the birth of almost 9,000 children to other infertile couples!

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