How does frozen embryo storage work? What happens if the owner of a given embryo stops paying or no longer wants storage.
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Embryologist here: embryos, oocytes, and sperm are stored in liquid nitrogen dewars. By staying at such a low temperature (-196C), they can pretty much stay frozen indefinitely and still survive being thawed.
Patients sign consents about what to do with their embryos when they are created and usually have sections based on what happens in divorce, death, or failure to pay. Depending on the legal legitimacy of consents, clinics can follow those wishes, however because of the nature of what embryos/oocytes/sperm are, most clinics are very hesitant to outright discard just based on those consents and require further discard consents to proceed.
Also gametes cannot just be donated without the express permission of the patients. There are a lot of laws and regulations surrounding embryo donation and the patients need to be involved in that process.
A lot of clinics have abandoned embryos in their tanks because of all this. Our hands are tied and we can’t really do much about it. It’s a huge ethical dilemma.
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