Giving Birth To Your Adopted Child

A recent entry by Illinois blogger and health care executive Dr. Robert Parker, M.D. discusses how Illinois law mandates the coverage of infertility care, which he says otherwise could cost a couple about $35,000 annually.

Coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of infertility, including in-vitro fertilization and other such procedures, is one of several categories of medical services that are mandated for coverage by the Illinois Dept. of Insurance (PDF).

The main thrust of the article concerns mandated coverage regulations in Illinois, but Dr. Parker also discusses the increasingly popular practice of embryo adoption, which falls under the mandate for coverage. He points out that since adoption costs are not a mandated benefit for insurance coverage, embryo adoption won't break the bank.

And since couples who are unable to conceive a child usually desire the experience of pregnancy and childbirth, he says embryo adoption offers the best of both worlds. But he raises an interesting dilemma, at least with respect to insurance coverage:

Then the question surfaced, 'Will the insurance carrier pay for pre-implantation genetic testing so I can be assured no major malady awaits?'

His answer is that the non-implanted embryo is not yet a member, meaning the embryo frozen in time is only a potential dependant of the parents and therefore ineligible for coverage. So prospective adoptive parents would have to pay for such testing on their own dime.

Embryo adoption is such a new area of adoption that the process varies from agency to agency, according to a FAQ section at the web site EmbryoAdoption.org. Obviously, the prospective mother must be cleared by her doctor that she is physically capable of carrying a child to term.

Other than that crucial requirement, as well as an infertility diagnosis, the eligibility requirements for embryo adoption are the same as with any other adoption.

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