Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Legalities

Earlier this year, I read a book called "Sing You Home" for my Book Club.  It's a Jodi Picoult book about an infertile couple who turn to IVF but end up getting divorced when they lose the baby late into the woman's pregnancy.  After the divorce, they end up in a law suit over the leftover frozen embryos.  Needless to say, the book was pretty deep.

Today my husband and I had an appointment.  During our appointment, I had the usual labs and an ultrasound done, but we also had to officially fill out all the paperwork for our IVF.  Within the 25 pages that we had to sign and initial, was a clause that addressed what was to be done with the embyros if either of us died or if we got divorced.  It made me think of "Sing You Home" and how real these types of issues can be.  Our options were to check a box that said "Destroy the embryos" while the other box said "A court decree, Last Will and Testament, and/or settlement agreement will be presented to the clinic directing use."  We chose the latter, as I can't imagine destroying the embyros (another very heavy topic that we'll save for another day).

Again, it's just crazy to think that these are the types of things you have to discuss and determine before going through with this.

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