Assisted reproductive technology
Embryo Donation Agreements in Florida
Karen Persis drafts and reviews Embryo Donation Agreements for donating couples with unused cryopreserved embryos and for recipient Intended Parents building their families.
What is Embryo Donation?
Embryo donation is the process by which a couple or individual with unused cryopreserved embryos donates those embryos to another individual or couple who intends to gestate the child or engage a gestational surrogate to carry the child for them.
For the Embryo Donors, embryo donation offers a meaningful alternative to indefinite storage, destruction, or donation for research purposes. For the recipient Intended Parents, it can offer a path to parenthood that would otherwise require IVF with donor eggs, donor sperm, or both.
The growing need for embryo donation counsel
The number of cryopreserved embryos in the United States has grown significantly over the last decade. It is estimated that there are hundreds of thousands of embryos in frozen storage across the country that are not being used by the couples who created them.
When couples have “leftover” embryos after completing their families, struggling individuals and couples may get the chance to start the family of their dreams sooner than they thought possible. This makes embryo donation increasingly common — and increasingly important to handle with proper legal representation.
The Embryo Donation Agreement
An Embryo Donation Agreement is a comprehensive legal document that typically addresses:
- Transfer of legal rights to the donated embryos
- Legal parentage of any resulting child
- The Embryo Donors’ relinquishment of parental rights
- Disposition of any embryos not used by the Intended Parents
- Confidentiality and identifying information
- Future contact between Embryo Donors, Intended Parents, and their children
- Medical and genetic disclosures
- Reimbursement for storage, transfer, or administrative costs
- Assumption of risks
- Termination and material breach provisions
Because embryo donation involves both the transfer of genetic material and the transfer of a pre-existing embryo, the agreement must address considerations that differ from egg or sperm donation alone.
Independent Representation
It is strongly suggested — and standard practice — that the Intended Parents and Embryo Donors in an embryo donation arrangement have independent legal representation from experienced embryo donation attorneys. Their legal interests differ, and independent counsel ensures that each party fully understands and consents to the arrangement.
Karen represents either the Embryo Donors or the Intended Parents in an embryo donation arrangement and recommends that the opposing party retain their own counsel.
Considering donating or receiving embryos?