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18 Wis. Women's L.J. 179 (2003)
Snowflake Adoptions and Orphan Embryos: The Legal Implications of Embryo Donation

handle is hein.journals/wiswo18 and id is 185 raw text is: Wisconsin Women's Law Journal VOL. 18 2003 ARTICLES SNOWFLAKE ADOPTIONS AND ORPHAN EMBRYOS: THE LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF EMBRYO DONATION Katheryn D. Katz* I. INTRODUCTION Micah Wheat was born on February 14, 2001, in Hobbs, New Mexico.' Micah's birth received international attention; it was in- cluded in a Japanese documentary on fertility ethics.2 Micah's birth would be unremarkable but for the fact that his birth was the result of an embryo donation program arranged under the auspices of the Snowflakes Program run by Nightlight Christian Adoptions, the first embryo adoption program in the country.3 Micah was born six years after he first came into existence as an embryo created for use in in vitro fertilization (IVF)4 by his genetic parents, an embryo that was * Katheryn Katz is a professor of family law and reproduction rights at Albany Law School. She received her A.B. from the University of California at Berkeley and her J.D. from Albany Law School. 1. Sue Watkins, Would-Be Parents Find an Adoption Option to Match their Values, DAt1- LAs MORNINc NEWS, Apr. 19, 2001, at 12S. 2. Id. 3. Jackie Jadmak, Legal Chill Surrounds Frozen Embryos, ALBUQUERQUE J., Apr. 1, 2001, at Al. 4. In vitro fertilization is defined as any fertilization of human ova which occurs outside the body of a female, either through an admixture of donor human sperm and ova or by any other means. 45 C.F.R. §46.203(g) (2001). The term IVF as used in this article entails not only extracting the woman's egg and fertilizing the eggs outside the woman's body, but also transferring the resulting embryo(s) into the wo- man's (or a surrogate gestator's) uterus through the cervix.