Adoption - the old and the new

Adoption is a great way of building families for infertile couples. This is an option which is been available through the ages , and many infertile couples feel that in case their IVF treatment cycles fail , they can always adopt a baby. However, the reality is that adoption has actually become much harder than doing IVF treatment !

This is because there just aren’t that many unwanted babies available for adoption anymore. This is true even in developing countries such as India, where women are becoming more educated and are no longer having unwanted pregnancies because use contraception ; and will terminate unwanted pregnancies . As a result, there are very few babies who are given up at birth or abandoned, which means there just aren't many babies left for adoption anymore.

This is good , because you don't want babies to be abandoned , but what happens to all the infertile couples who want to adopt babies ? Where do they go ? The fact remains that waiting list are now routinely anywhere from 2 to 3 years long - and even after being on the waiting list, there’s no certainty that couples will get the baby which they want.

The good news is that technology has come up with a clever solution , so that instead of doing a post birth adoption of a child, it’s now possible to do an in utero embryo adoption. This actually has a number of advantages as compared to traditional adoption . For one thing, there are no waiting lists because frozen embryos, which have been donated by other infertile couples who have got pregnant and don't want any more babies , are fairly easily available all over the world . Even better , it allows the mother to experience pregnancy and to bond with the baby . From a social point of view it's better because no one else is aware of the fact that your baby was conceived as a result of embryo adoption. This means that the name on the birth certificate is yours, so that there are no long-term issues as regards legal inheritances . Equally importantly, there is no problem with the risk that the baby may have suffered in utero because the mother ( who is going to abandon her baby at birth) did not provide the baby with the right antenatal care. For example she may have smoked should have abused drugs or alcohol because she was an irresponsible mother who didn't want the pregnancy in the first place. After birth , a lot of babies which are handed over for adoption are forced to spend about 3 to 6 months in an institution. Now this can't be very good for them and it does have an adverse impact on their emotional and mental development . The advantage with embryo adoption is that it's possible to bypass all the problems associated with traditional adoption , so that infertile couples can get the baby they want without having to go through the long and convoluted process of traditional adoption.

Times have changed and we need to change with them – and this is all for the best.