Embryo Adoption Awareness Grants and Funding History

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The Office of Population Affairs is responsible for administering the frozen embryo adoption public awareness campaign. The campaign supports grants, cooperative agreements and/or contracts which aim to increase public awareness of embryo donation/adoption. The program may also fund projects that provide services to make this family building option more attainable for infertile couples.

In the course of treatments for infertility, couples usually produce more embryos than they can use. These supernumerary embryos are generally frozen while the couple who created them decides about their ultimate disposition. This freezing process is known as cryo-preservation. It is thought that there may be thousands of frozen embryos which could potentially be made available for embryo adoption (that is, the transfer of the embryo to the uterus of a woman who intends to bear a child and to be that child's parent). The ultimate purpose of the program is to promote the use of embryo/donation as a family-building option.

Funding

The embryo adoption program is authorized under Section 301 of the Public Health Service Act. In fiscal years 2002, and 2004 - 2015. Congress provided funding in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) annual appropriations act for an embryo adoption public awareness campaign. The purpose is to educate Americans about the existence of frozen embryos (resulting from in vitro fertilization), which may be available for donation/adoption for family building.

Grants

In general, three to five grants have been awarded each year through a competitive process. The grants generally have a two-year life-span.