Frequently Asked Questions

Glossary of Terms

Openness: Identifying information is shared between donors and recipients for the sake of the child and for the purpose of providing a life long connection between the 2 families.

Couple: For all intents and purposes, the word “couple” is used throughout for simplicity, but we recognize that “couple” is not defined by a married male and female partner.  It does not exclude single parents as either donor or recipients.

Surrogacy: A woman who carries a child for another woman using her own eggs and donated sperm

Gestational carrier: A woman who carries a child for another woman using donated egg and sperm

IVF: In Vitro Fertilization is a clinical procedure whereby fertilization is accomplished outside a woman’s body, and involves three basic step: fertility drugs are used to stimulate the female’s egg production by the female’s ovaries; eggs are retrieved from the female partner and mixed with sperm from the male partner; fertilized eggs (embryos) are mixed with the sperm and transferred to the uterus.  Depending on the number of embryos produced, some may be frozen for later use.

Openness Agreement: Agreement between donors and recipients about the terms of contact between themselves and the child. Beginnings agreements are based on the best interests of the child and outline the degree of openness mutually agreed upon. They are not legally binding, but they are created and followed in “good faith”.