Reproductive Facts

For years, infertility patients and their advocates have worked towards the establishment of a national tax credit or federally mandated insurance coverage for fertility and fertility preservation treatments. At long last, the potential for the first is at hand with the Family Act of 2011 Bill.

As explained on the RESOLVE:
The National Infertility Association's website, it's "a bill to create a tax credit
for the out-of-pocket costs associated with infertility medical treatment. It has
been introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) and in theU.S. House of Representatives by Congressman John Lewis (GA)."

"It seems only right that infertility patients receive similar treatment as those
individuals adopting children who use the Adoption Tax Credit," explained Dr. Sweet. "The current medical expense deduction often cannot be claimed by infertility patients since treatment is usually less than 7.5% of gross income and is often spread out over a couple of years. Washington doesn't want to talk about insurance mandates right now but I feel our political leaders are far more willing to discuss tax relief, which is the ultimate outcome of the proposal."

We strongly encourage you to get involved. Please support this bill and encourage your friends and family to do the same. Share information with your personal networks and contact your senators and representatives. RESOLVE has a myriad of tools at your disposal on their website. It's only by making our voices be heard that we can effect change. The passage of this law could really help increase access to care.

A guest post written by Harold Eskin, Esq. "Georgia Law: The First Salvo Towards Embryo Personhood" tackles yet another sensitive embryo donation topic - terminology and legality.

New laws are beginning to appear on the georgia books of many states that support "embryo adoption." Georgia was the first state to pass an embryo adoption bill (2009) that provided an opportunity for intended parents to go through an adoption procedure to obtain the right to gestate a thawed frozen embryo.

In the past, Dr. Sweet and Mr. Eskin co-wrote an in-depth article on why the term "embryo donation" is correct rather than "embryo adoption," which is available on our website. This article gained further importance with the recent failed attempt of providing legal personhood for embryos in the state of Mississippi.

The implications of assigning "personhood" to embryos are complex and extensive and the Georgia statute is one of the first successful salvos to be launched, with others most certainly to follow. We encourage you to read the post and offer your opinions.

 

One of only a few books for the lay public on embryo donation, "Hope & Will Have a Baby" is written by a mental health professional, Irene Celcer. It explains why Hope and Will had to go a "non-traditional" route and how they love their child because of the special path they took to build their family.

Insightful, this book is to be used to
tell the children about their loving conception while trying to manage the complex emotions of the parents. In Dr. Sweet's book review blog post, he examines it from a physician's perspective.
We encourage you to not only read the review, but also consider picking up a copy of the book.

Our vision is simple...

As a subdivision of Specialists In Reproductive Medicine & Surgery, P. A., we have been performing embryo donation since 2001 making us one of the most experienced embryo donation facilities in the U.S.A. We welcome you to EDI and wish you success in all that you do.

Craig R. Sweet, M.D.
Reproductive Endocrinologist
Founder, Medical & Practice Director
Embryo Donation International [email protected]