This is still a new frontier, which means there are many emotional and legal implications that need to be carefully considered for both recipients and donors.

It's also a potentially huge vista. There are 400,000 frozen embryos in storage, by some estimates, and only a tiny fraction have been released for donation.

Thus far, these embryos have been represented by agencies that want them to go into largely Christian-based homes headed by a man and wife. But several IVF clinics and agents are starting to open things up so that more embryos can find life in a loving family that might include a single woman or a lesbian couple.

Slowly but steadily, I expect we'll see major changes in this area of reproductive technology, simply because of the sheer number of embryos available.

Of course, it is imperative that both recipients and donors are careful about how many homes these embryos reach. Unlike offspring from donated sperm, which produces half siblings, these are full genetic siblings, started by a family that has struggled to create their family through IVF, and then has to decide whether to relinquish remaining embryos to an unknown person, potentially in their geographic area.

As the experts in the Choice Moms E-Guide to Embryo Donation that follows attest, and as our experience with the stories of many donor-conceived and adoptive offspring indicates, this is not an option to be stepped into lightly.

But it is an exciting option that is giving single women, who have found frustration with numerous cycles of IUI, and sobering news on IVF and adoption routes, new hope.

The e-guide includes interviews with experts from IVF clinics that offer embryo donation programs, therapists, embryo donation agents, and three women on the Choice Mom path who have shared their stories about embryo donation and the philosophical and emotional issues it raises.

-- Mikki