Creating Families through Embryo Adoption

When couples conceive through in-vitro fertilization (IVF), they often create more embryos than they need. What becomes of their unused embryos? Most are put into frozen storage (in a tank of liquid nitrogen) at the fertility center.

Ashley Landis/Staff Photographer (The Dallas Morning News)
Through Snowflake, Christy and Mike Trabun of Dallas received frozen embryos that were donated by a Northwest couple. That's how 3-year-old Gage (left) got older brother Cade, 4, and 10-month-old twin siblings Shiloh and Coen

Some couples will freeze them to use at a later date (themselves) in the unfortunate event they miscarry or for future IVF sibling cycles.

But what if you are through growing your own family? What do you do then? Leave your unused embryos in a perpetual frozen state, paying for their "room and board" indefinitely (at the average cost of $600 annually)? Why not donate them to an organization like Snowflakes Embryo Adoption Agency?

This is a beautiful story of a couple who grew their family through adopted embryos from Snowflakes.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20150729-embryo-adoption-offers-couples-another-way-to-make-a-family.ece

About West Coast Surrogacy, Inc. and West Coast Egg Donation, Inc.
West Coast Surrogacy, Inc (WCS) and West Coast Egg Donation Inc. (WCED) is a boutique style all-inclusive surrogacy and egg donation agency based in Southern California, with satellite offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and Sacramento. 

Working with intended parents together with gestational surrogates and egg donors nationwide, WCS and WCED uses a team-oriented approach that encompasses the highest level of integrity, support, compassion and affirming care. Committed to compliance with all regulations and standards set forth by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), it is their pledge to guide you through every step of this life-changing process, acting as both a resource for information and an unparalleled support system.

For more information about West Coast Surrogacy’s surrogate mother program, visit:https://www.westcoastsurrogacy.com.

For more information about West Coast Egg Donation’s donor egg program, visit https://www.westcoasteggdonation.com.

You can also contact them by phone at 949.861.4100 or 877.492.7411 (toll free in the US)

Is the latest LGBT Controversy with Dolce and Gabbana a Step Backward?

LGBT issues have been front and center in the news for quite some time.  Gay parenting and LGBT family building often leading the controversial pack raising eyebrows on all platforms. However, the latest controversy stemming from Dulce and Gabbana's founders criticizing same-sex adoptions and family building via artificial insemination (AI) or in-vitro fertilization (IVF)  are spurring more than a raised eyebrow.

Matteo Prandoni/BFAnyc/Sipa USA via Newscom & The Daily Beast

Tim Teeman, writer for The Daily Beast chimed in with an article titled: "Boycott Dolce and Gabbana: Gays Can Be Hypocritical, Prejudiced Dumbasses, Too!"

Designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, once a couple themselves, openly condemned IVF, stating that it leads to "synthetic" children and that gay people shouldn't be parents." How does Stefano Gabbana explain that just nine years ago (2006) he sung a different tune when he openly stated he wished to have a child via artificial insemination, exactly the same method he now unfairly criticizes as the choice of other gay parents. 

The latest remarks by the fashion icon pair made the cover story in the March 12th edition of the Italian magazine Panorama.  The interview, titled "Long-Live the [Traditional] Family" predictably set the Internet ablaze with outrage! 

In the cover story interview, Dolce and Gabbana spoke of the "classical" family calling children conceived through IVF using a surrogate mother "chemical children in a rented uterus."  The billionaire fashion designers came out publicly against the use of surrogate mothers, and claimed children need "a mother and a father."

The fallout reaction was immediate and fierce by Elton John, who recently married his longtime partner and co-parent to their two children, David Furnish. Elton John lashed out calling for a boycott of Dolce & Gabbana's world renowned fashion brand.

(L-R) David Furnish, Elijah Furnish-John, Zachary Furnish-John, and Sir Elton John attend the 23rd Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party on February 22, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Michael Kovac/Getty)

Will Elton John's boycott lead the fashion world down the same path?  Only time will tell.  What I can with some degree of certainty say is "This won't die down any time soon".

We welcome your comments on this issue, and would especially love to hear from the LGBT parenting community!

West Coast Surrogacy, Inc (WCS) and West Coast Egg Donation (WCED) is an all-inclusive, LGBT friendly surrogate and egg donation agency, based in Orange County, CA with satellite offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and Sacramento, CA.  Working with intended parent(s) together with gestational surrogates and egg donors nationwide, WCS and WCED uses a team-oriented approach that encompasses the highest level of integrity, support, compassion and affirming care.  It is our pledge to guide you through every step of this life-changing process, acting as both a resource for information and an unparalleled support system.

To find out more about our surrogate mother and egg donor programs, please visit us on the web at: https://www.westcoastsurrogacy.com and https://www.westcoasteggdonation.com.  You may also reach us by phone at: (949) 861-4100 or Toll Free in the US at: (877.492.7411

It's illegal to pay a surrogate mother in Canada. So what would motivate a woman do it?

For some couples (or individuals), their only hope of growing their family is through the amazing, loving gift of life a surrogate mother offers!

So why, if it is illegal to pay a surrogate mother in Canada, would a woman be motivated to carry someone else's embryos?

Read on and see...

Compliments of: Denise Balkissoon

Originally published by:  The Globe and Mail, Thursday, Feb. 12 2015, 2:39 PM EST

For 2 1/2 years, Sara Karklins tried very, very hard to get pregnant. In the fall of 2010, she began the process of in-vitro fertilization – an embryo was formed in a fertility clinic, then implanted into her uterus. The process required megadosing with six times the amount of estrogen given to menopausal women, in order to build up her uterine lining. For three days before each embryo transfer, she also received progesterone injections, which left her buttock muscles swollen, itchy and bruised. Her mood swings were sharp and unpredictable.

Gillian Harnum, seen at a playground near her home in Halifax, has been a surrogate mother to two children.  (PAUL DARROW For The Globe and Mail)

Again and again, the embryos failed to attach to Karklins’s uterus. Her fertility doctors injected a blood thinner into her stomach every day to increase blood flow to the uterus. Twice, she took an immunosuppressant to try and stop her body’s rejection of the embryos. The result was a serious respiratory infection, as well as another pregnancy failure.

"These are women who give up their very bodies for complete strangers... "

Karklins, now 32, wasn’t trying to have a baby for herself – she and her then-husband already had two children. The never-ending schedule of pills, needles and doctor’s appointments was for a male couple for whom she had agreed to be a surrogate mother. And, in keeping with Canadian law, she was doing it all for free.

"For surrogates and IPs, the process of finding one another is 

as indescribable and chemical as romance. 

Repeatedly, both sides use the phrase “you just know.”

“My mother said more than once, ‘You tried, and did your best, maybe it’s time to move on,’” says Karklins, an administrative manager at a greenhouse in Beamsville, Ont. “But I’m stubborn.”

After 15 lost embryos in five failed attempts, Karklins felt like giving up: Not because of personal discomfort, she says, but because she felt she was letting down the would-be fathers. “We had tried three different egg donors – the only thing left to take out of the equation was me,” she says.

Read the full story here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/parenting/an-inside-look-at-the-difficult-process-of-surrogacy/article22953150/

West Coast Surrogacy, Inc (WCS) and West Coast Egg Donation Inc. (WCED) is an all-inclusive surrogate and egg donation agency located in Southern California. Working with intended parent(s) both straight and gay together with gestational surrogates and egg donors nationwide, WCS and WCED uses a team-oriented approach that encompasses the highest level of integrity, support, and compassion. It is our pledge to guide you through every step of this life-changing process, acting as both a resource for information and an unparalleled support system.  

To find out more about our surrogate mother and egg donor programs, please visit us on the web at: http://www.westcoastsurrogacy.com and http://www.westcoasteggdonation.com or call us (toll free) at: 877.492.7411.

The beginning of the End of Genetically Passed Down Disease? or A New Step Towards Designer Babies?

This is a huge step towards controlling diseases genetically passed down through families.  It is too bad there is so much controversial debate swaying towards calling it another method of creating "designer babies".  Read the article and judge for yourself.  We would love to hear your thoughts!

HEALTH

Britain votes to allow world's first 'three-parent' IVF babies

Published February 03, 2015    Reuters

Britain voted on Tuesday to become the first country to allow a "three-parent" IVF technique which doctors say will prevent some inherited incurable diseases but which critics see as a step towards creating designer babies.

The treatment is known as "three-parent" in vitro fertilisation (IVF) because the babies, born from genetically modified embryos, would have DNA from a mother, a father and from a female donor.

It is designed to help families with mitochondrial diseases, incurable conditions passed down the maternal line that affect around one in 6,500 children worldwide.

After an emotionally charged 90-minute debate that some lawmakers criticised as being too short for such a serious matter, parliament voted 382 to 128 in favour of the technique, called mitochondrial donation.

The vote paves the way for a medical world first for Britain -- which along with the United States has been at the forefront of scientific research on the treatments -- but one that is fiercely disputed by some religious groups and other critics.

Read the full story here:  http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/02/03/britain-votes-to-allow-world-first-three-parent-ivf-babies/

West Coast Surrogacy, Inc (WCS) and West Coast Egg Donation Inc. (WCED) is an all-inclusive surrogate and egg donation agency located in Southern California. Working with intended parent(s) both straight and gay together with gestational surrogates and egg donors nationwide, WCS and WCED uses a team-oriented approach that encompasses the highest level of integrity, support, and compassion. It is our pledge to guide you through every step of this life-changing process, acting as both a resource for information and an unparalleled support system.  

To find out more about our surrogate mother and egg donor programs,  please visit us on the web at:http://www.westcoastsurrogacy.com and http://www.westcoasteggdonation.com or call us at (toll free) 877.492.7411.