Fertility Clinic That Has My Embryos Is Ghosting Me

TLDR: Fertility clinic where I pay monthly fees to store my embryos is ghosting me and my attempts to donate my embryos to science.

This issue is pretty niche and therefore not something I can really google. I’ll try to not get too into the weeds and keep it simple, but apologies in advance for the length.

I have frozen embryos at a fertility clinic that I pay monthly storage fees to. I have a portion of embryos that qualify to be donated to science to a university, so I am pursuing that route.

In order to start the process, there are 3 forms the clinic must complete. Over 9 weeks I have contacted the clinic 7 times and sent the forms 5 times. I have sent them 3 times through the patient portal, 1 time via email to the office supervisor, and 1 time via certified mail with a strongly worded letter. Nothing. Not a response or even an acknowledgment. I’ve made several phone calls and left voicemails requesting a call back and never received a return call. Today I finally selected the front desk option. She put me on hold for a while and told me to send them through the portal again, then told me good luck.

I’m really not optimistic this is going to get resolved in a friendly manner. In addition to continued storage fees this delay is costing me, it’s also a really delicate and sensitive issue. It’s really important to me that the embryos go to the university I’m coordinating with instead of just thrown in the trash, and this program is literally the only one in the country accepting embryos right now, so it’s very stressful and it feels like they are holding my embryos hostage for some unknown reason.

Other details: I live 3 hours away from the clinic so it’s not like I can just swing by. These forms would take less than 5 minutes to complete, it is not lengthy or detailed, they are basically consents/acknowledgements.

So what should I do? Send a demand letter that threatens legal action if they don’t return the forms in a reasonable timeframe? My issue is I don’t exactly know what laws they are violating, but I would imagine there is some type of healthcare regulation that you can’t ghost a patient when you have their embryos in your possession and they are actively paying for storage of said embryos. My husband is worried if I threaten legal action they will stop communicating with me, but they are already ignoring me, so I don’t see how that really changes anything.

I’ll also add the clinic openly discusses donating to science on their website and the clinic is in Maryland, so there’s no wacky law issues like there are in Alabama. I also cannot transfer them to a different clinic to solve the problem; 1 of the 3 forms is required to be completed by the clinic where the embryos originated from, so I’d still have this problem even if I moved them.

Any and all suggestions or advice is much appreciated! Thanks in advance!