Egg donor legal contracts, and payments.

Talking about my dream to have children and putting the building blocks in place. Suddenly, I'm in the mental space of having to be explained clauses in a contract, making everything seem transactional, and that was not something I was expecting.

One of the things I did not mention in the previous episode, is that when I chose my egg donor, I had to sign a legal contract with her.

The agency found me the egg donor, but legally, I had to sign a contract directly with her. The agency explained to me that they would present two independent lawyers.

The first lawyer would write a contract that included information such as how much she would be compensated for the donation, what type of contact I would have with the donor, And most importantly, who had the rights and responsibilities for the eggs. The second lawyer would then review all this information with the egg donor to make sure that she was legally informed.

This process normally takes up to two weeks to complete. Anything with legal contracts in a foreign country petrifies me. And in my mind, I did not want to end up in a conflict over who had responsibility for my children, arming me with confidence that in the US, being both legally protected, with the requirement for me to pay for both lawyers, was the right decision to make.

In another episode, I will have a conversation with a US lawyer to better understand the complexities of the contractual obligations. How to pay your egg donor. Legally, this must be done via an account where money is put up front so that everyone knows you have sufficient funds to cover the egg donation process.

This is called an escrow or trust account where you authorise a third party to make payments on your behalf. What scared me about using an escrow account was having no control over how and when payments were made. However, this account is covered by a U. S. government guarantee. or a financial bond in case of theft or fraud.

With all of the uncertainty and things not in my control, my brain was telling me to be careful, but because of the financial safeguards in the US, my gut kept reminding me I had made the right decision. As an example, The agency had arranged all of the logistics for the travel around the egg donation.

My donor lived in Colorado and had to get an overnight flight to New York for her egg retrieval. I had arranged with the agency a private car service to drive her to Connecticut, two hours away from the airport, where the clinic was based, to provide her with peace of mind. When she arrived, the car was not there.

Unbeknownst to me, because of the efficiency of the US system, and having in place mechanisms to protect donors, she called the agency's emergency contact, who provided an immediate solution, she was told to get into the first available taxi to go to the clinic without worrying about the cost. That said, instead of the pre arranged 140 car service, the taxi cost 411, which I was happy to pay as everything had been done for me.

This highlights a pro of the escrow process. The donor was covered, and she arrived smoothly to the clinic for the egg retrieval. If you enjoyed this episode and would like to learn more about IVF and surrogacy, then please subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. Also, please share and follow our social media handle @IVFDADDIES.

We are here to answer any questions and to guide you through this very personal process.