Adopted Before Birth: Embryo Adoption Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe embryo donation and embryo adoption, told by the people who gave, received, waited and grew up inside it. Recipients arrive after four rounds of IVF, five pregnancy losses, periods that stopped at twenty-five, Turner syndrome, hormone-sensitive breast cancer, or an adoption that fell through and left a car seat in the hallway. Donors include a reluctant engineer, an embryologist who knows the inside of a freezer tank, a woman deciding after divorce, and a mother who split four embryos between two families. There are single mothers, two dads with a carrier, a non-carrying mum, foster parents of eleven children, an Army family whose embryos moved states before they did, a dairy farmer injecting in the farmhouse kitchen at calving season, a grandmother with an ugly first thought, and a science teacher of twenty-seven who began as a donated embryo. The places run from Anchorage to Adelaide and from Cork to Prague. Writers cover agency paperwork, waits of fourteen months and three years, flying abroad for transfers, an accountant's list of every payment, open and closed contact, telling children early, and a picnic with genetic siblings. Not every story ends with a baby: one writer is still waiting with one embryo left, and one couple's last embryo did not take.

Who it's for

For people thinking about receiving or donating embryos, couples undecided about embryos still in storage, and the partners, grandparents, friends and grown children who want to understand these families.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 278 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.