The Essential IVF Surrogacy Safety Guide
- Sunil Khattri
- Jun 2
- 6 min read
For intended parents in India, what actually matters, in plain language
IVF and surrogacy have helped thousands of families welcome children safely and successfully. While serious errors are rare, cases from around the world have shown that mistakes involving embryos, sperm, eggs, storage records, or embryo transfers can occur. In some instances, intended parents discovered after birth that the child was not genetically related to them due to laboratory or identification errors.
The good news is that fertility clinics follow multiple safeguards designed to prevent such mistakes. As intended parents, you do not need to become embryologists or lawyers. You simply need to understand the key checkpoints where identity verification takes place, ask the right questions, and keep the right records.
This guide explains the most important safeguards, documents, and consent forms that help protect your child's genetic identity throughout the IVF and surrogacy journey.
Where Errors Actually Happen
Your embryo passes through many hands across many weeks. The highest-risk moments are:
The fertilisation lab : wrong sperm used, or eggs and sperm from two couples mixed up.
Embryo storage : mislabelled frozen embryos used in the wrong patient's cycle.
The transfer room : the single most critical moment, where the wrong embryo can be loaded into the catheter.
Documentation : falsified or missing records that make errors impossible to trace or prove.
Every safeguard in this guide targets one of these four moments.
Consent Forms
Your informed agreement at every major step, never sign anything you do not understand
Consent forms are not just paperwork. In a surrogacy journey, they serve two critical purposes: they protect your rights as intended parents, and they create a legal record of exactly what you agreed to, and what you did not. If something goes wrong, these forms are the first thing a court examines.
Donor Gamete Consent Form (if donor eggs or donor sperm are being used)
This form comes into play when the intended mother cannot produce usable eggs, or the intended father cannot produce usable sperm, and the clinic recommends using eggs or sperm from a third-party donor.
This is one of the most sensitive consent forms in the entire process because it directly affects the genetic identity of your child. Read it carefully. Do not sign it under time pressure.
What this form must clearly state:
Who is donating. Under Indian law, gamete donors must be anonymous. You will not know the donor's identity, but the form should confirm the donor was screened medically and genetically, and is registered with the ART bank.
Which gamete is being donated. Whether it is the eggs, the sperm, or both (in rare cases) must be explicitly stated. Never sign a form that is vague about this.
That you understand the genetic implication. The child born will not be genetically related to the parent whose gamete could not be used. This must be clearly acknowledged in the form, not buried in fine print.
That the donor has also given consent. The donor must have signed their own consent form agreeing to their eggs or sperm being used. Ask the clinic to confirm this.
What happens to unused donor embryos? If donor eggs are fertilised and multiple embryos are created but not all are used, the form must state what happens to the remaining ones, stored, discarded, or donated, and who makes that decision.
Why this form matters beyond the consent itself:
If your child ever wants to understand their medical history, certain genetic conditions, hereditary diseases, the donor's screened medical profile (not their identity) may be the only record available. Confirm with your clinic that the donor's medical and genetic screening records are stored and can be accessed for medical purposes if ever needed.
Also confirm that the donor's details are registered with the National ART Registry as required under the ART (Regulation) Act, 2021. This registration is what prevents the same donor from being used excessively across multiple couples, a safeguard that protects your child from unknowingly being related to a large number of people.
General IVF Treatment Consent Form (Intended Parents) : Signed before the first cycle begins. Covers your agreement to undergo IVF, acknowledging the success rates, the risks of ovarian stimulation, and the possibility that the cycle may not result in a pregnancy. This form also typically covers what happens to unused embryos.
Embryo Cryopreservation Consent Form : One of the most important consent forms in the entire process. Covers your instructions for any embryos that are frozen, how long they may be stored, what should happen to them if you separate, become incapacitated, or pass away, and whether they may be used for research or donated if you choose not to use them. Read this form with the utmost care. Disputes over frozen embryos have resulted in lengthy legal battles.
Embryo Transfer Consent Form : Signed immediately before the transfer procedure. Critically, this form must specify the number of embryos to be transferred and confirm which embryo (by ID and grade) will be used. This is a direct safeguard against the wrong-embryo error. Read it carefully. If the embryo ID on this form does not match the ID on your embryo grading report, stop and ask before proceeding.
The Lab Phase, Your Chain of Evidence
The embryology laboratory is where your eggs and sperm become embryos. The records from this phase are the closest thing to a fingerprint for your embryo. They are your primary protection against any embryo error.
Day 1 Fertilisation Report : On the morning after egg retrieval, the embryologist checks how many eggs fertilised normally. A correctly fertilised egg shows two pronuclei, one from the egg and one from the sperm. This report is your documented proof that the right sperm was used on the right eggs. Ask for it in writing on Day 1. Do not wait.
Embryo Grading Report : Each embryo is graded by quality and developmental stage. The grade written on this report must exactly match the grade written on your transfer report. Cross-check them yourself. A mismatch is a red flag.
Cryopreservation Record (if embryos are frozen) : If any embryos are frozen for later use, this document lists each embryo's unique ID number, the storage tank and straw it is held in, and the date it was frozen. This is how you prove which embryo is yours , potentially years later. Keep this record indefinitely. It is the most important document in guarding against a frozen embryo mix-up.
The Transfer, The Highest-Risk Moment
The embryo transfer is when a wrong-embryo error may happen. Here is what must occur, and what you should ask for:
Before loading the embryo into the catheter, the embryologist should read your name and embryo ID aloud. A second lab staff member should witness and co-sign the loading. The doctor performing the transfer should verbally confirm your name and embryo details at the start of the procedure.
After the transfer, the embryologist checks the empty catheter under a microscope to confirm the embryo was released and not accidentally retained inside it.
You should receive a written Embryo Transfer Report before you leave the clinic that day. This report must include your name, the surrogate's name, the embryo's unique ID, its grade, the date, and the name of the doctor. Check the embryo ID against your grading report and your cryopreservation record. All three must match.
Ask your clinic this question directly: "Do you use barcode-based embryo tracking or an electronic witnessing system?" Leading registered clinics now tag every sample, egg dish, sperm vial, embryo dish, catheter, with a barcode linked to your patient file. Any mismatch triggers an alert. If your clinic uses this, your risk of a mix-up drops dramatically. If they do not, ask exactly how they prevent errors manually.
The Five Questions to Ask Your Clinic
Bring these to your first appointment and repeat them at key stages. A good clinic will have clear, immediate answers.
"May I see your ART and Surrogacy clinic registration certificates?"
"Do you use barcode tracking or electronic witnessing for embryo identity?"
"Can I receive the Day 1 fertilisation report in writing, the same day?"
"Will the embryologist read my name and embryo ID aloud before loading, with a witness present?"
"Can I have the written transfer report before I leave on the day of transfer?"
Keep These , Always
You do not need to file every lab printout. But these specific documents must be kept indefinitely, in both physical and digital form:
All signed consent forms
All ultrasound reports
All blood test reports
The Day 1 Fertilization Report
The Embryo Grading Report
The Cryopreservation Record (if embryos were frozen)
The Embryo Transfer Report
These documents, taken together, form the complete chain of evidence of your child's genetic identity and your legal rights as parents.
The Bottom Line
You are not being difficult by asking questions. You are not being paranoid by keeping records. You are being a parent, before your child is even born.
A good clinic welcomes these questions. The checks in this guide are not unusual requests. They are what standard practice looks like at a well-run registered clinic. If your clinic cannot answer them, that itself is the most important finding of all.
Disclaimer : Based on the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021, ART (Regulation) Act, 2021, and the 2024 Amendment Rules. For informational purposes only , not legal or medical advice. Consult a registered fertility specialist and a qualified surrogacy lawyer for your specific situation.
The Author :
Dr. Sunil Khattri
+91 9811618704
Dr Sunil Khattri MBBS, MS(General Surgery), LLB, is a Medical doctor and is a practicing Advocate in the Supreme Court of India and National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, New Delhi.
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