Georgia House Passes Bill Permitting Adoption of Embryo

According to a press release by Georgia Right to Life, yesterday the Georgia state House of Representatives pased by a vote of 96-66 and sent on to the Senate the Option of Adoption Act (HB 388). The Act deals with excess embryos created through in vitro fertilization procedures. It provides procedures for legal transfer of such embryos to other women for implantation. The bill not only confirms that the person giving birth to the transferred embryo will be considered the legal parent, but also allows formal adoption of the embryo before birth. The bill appears to permit expedited adoption of the embryo by the "recipient intended parent" even before the embryo is transplanted into the woman's womb. Clarke Forsythe, senior counsel of Americans United for Life, said: "This bill is very timely given the need to humanize the embryonic human at a time when at the federal level embryonic stem cell research is being promoted."