Carmen Knaus, of Pittsburgh, has 22 embryos in cold storage. Like Moreli, she is a member of the online infertility support group called Child of My Dreams. The Leftovers Knaus also has an agreement with her husband to donate embryos to other infertile couples. But other fertility patients have a hard time deciding what to do with frozen embryos after pregnancy efforts fail or a baby is born. Such hesitation shows that patients instinctively know embryos are babies that need to be protected, said John Grabowski, a theologian at Catholic University in Washington.
Patient privacy raises yet another concern.
N.J. The choices may be more theoretical than real. Other clinics are unlikely to take unclaimed embryos. In many cases, some date back to the 1980s and are so old that fertility experts say they have no chance of surviving inside a womb. Though other doctors might hesitate, Dr. Jaroslav Marik of Los Angeles once accepted stored embryos from another retiring doctor. It's an unfortunate consequence of the sue-happy population.