November (Web-only) 1999

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Barbara Olson, 36, and her husband Dan, 39, of Minneapolis were content with the size of their family. The Olsons had two children through in vitro fertilization but were concerned about what to do with their leftover fertilized eggs.

The fertility clinic had provided the Olsons with two options for the extra embryos: freeze or dispose. Not wanting to end the potential for life, the couple opted to place the nine embryos in straws in the clinic's deep freeze.

"I was distressed over the fact that our embryos were just in storage and I felt convicted that they deserved a chance to be born," Barbara says.

Then the Olsons learned of the Snowflake Embryo Adoption Program. Ron Stoddart and Christian Adoption and Family Services (CAFS) in Brea, California, launched the one-of-a-kind program, which uses traditional adoption methods to find homes for abandoned embryos, two years ago.

Stoddart says the name Snowflake is appropriate because embryos are "unique, they're fragile, and of course, they're frozen."

The first Snowflake baby was born to a California couple in December 1998. Snowflake has matched three sets of couples so far, and is working on five more. The agency has a unique ministry opportunity: There may be as many as 100,000 surplus human embryos frozen in fertility clinics across the country.

While fertility clinics often provide donor embryos to those who request them, Snowflake requires a traditional adoption home study and asks that the parents of the frozen embryos select the adoptive couple from qualified applicants. Because the embryos have no legal rights, the agreement is not a legal adoption but a transfer of property.

Some fertility clinics do not want to handle adoptions, but others welcome the opportunity to turn ...