What will Embryo Adoption Mean for the Future of Family building: a Talk with Risa Cromer

Adoption Uncovered

Adoption is changing. Technology now makes it possible to adopt the embryos left over from couples who have attempted or succeeded in IVF treatments. Oversight and regulation of this transaction is in its infancy. The people adopting these embryos and those encouraging the idea of the personhood of these embryos are a select group. Where is this practice headed and what does it mean for the children who are conceived through this practice and the couples who could start families this way, but don't have access to this practice yet? These are all questions that still need to be solved as embryo adoption grows. Risa Cromer has been studying embryo adoption as an anthropologist who specializes in reproductive politics at Purdue University. This conversation I have with her sheds some light on where embryo adoption came from and where it might be headed.