Family Building & Adoption

Donor conception, inclusive family building, adoption and surrogacy, with the legal and clinical sources cited.

Third-party reproduction & donor conception

  • Third-party reproduction is a general term for any process that involves someone other than the intended parent(s) in conceiving and having a child, and it encompasses gestational carriers (surrogacy), egg donation, sperm donation, and embryo donation.Source: ASRM
  • A gestational carrier is a woman who agrees to have a couple's fertilized egg (embryo) implanted in her uterus and carries the pregnancy for the intended parent(s); because she does not provide the egg, she is not biologically (genetically) related to the child.Source: ASRM
  • Egg donation is a form of third-party reproduction in which a woman (the donor) provides her eggs to another woman (the recipient) so the recipient can become pregnant and have a baby, typically after the donor takes medications to stimulate development of multiple eggs in a single cycle.Source: ASRM
  • Embryo donation allows intended parents to use embryos that were created by another couple during in vitro fertilization (IVF) but were not used and were instead frozen (cryopreserved) for possible future use, offering another path to parenthood through third-party reproduction.Source: ASRM
  • Under FDA regulations, establishments that recover reproductive cells or tissue (such as donor eggs, sperm, or embryos) must test a specimen from the donor to reduce the risk that relevant communicable disease agents of the genitourinary tract will be transmitted to the recipient, with required testing covering specific listed disease agents unless the tissue is recovered by a method that ensures freedom from such contamination.Source: FDA (21 CFR 1271.85)

Building your family, inclusively

  • The ASRM Ethics Committee holds that access to fertility treatment should not be restricted based on a person's marital status, sexual orientation, or gender identity — individuals and couples are entitled to fertility services on the same basis regardless of these factors.Source: ASRM
  • Reviewing the available research, the ASRM Ethics Committee found that children's development, adjustment, and overall well-being are not meaningfully affected by whether their parents are married, their parents' sexual orientation, or their parents' gender identity.Source: ASRM

Adoption as a path to parenthood

  • Adoption as a path to parenthood is not just a legal procedure — it is also a social and emotional process that can bring joy alongside challenges like loss, grief, and identity issues for everyone involved.Source: Child Welfare Information Gateway
  • When a child's home environment is unsafe, placing them with relatives (kinship care) is generally the preferred option because it helps preserve family connections and cultural traditions while reducing the trauma of separation.Source: Child Welfare Information Gateway

Educational reference only — not medical advice. Every fertility journey differs. Always consult your doctor or midwife.