  A rigorous extraction of the deuteron charge form factors from tensor
polarization data in elastic electron-deuteron scattering, at given values of
the 4-momentum transfer, is presented. Then the world data for elastic
electron-deuteron scattering is used to parameterize, in three different ways,
the three electromagnetic form factors of the deuteron in the 4-momentum
transfer range 0-7 fm^-1. This procedure is made possible with the advent of
recent polarization measurements. The parameterizations allow a
phenomenological characterization of the deuteron electromagnetic structure.
They can be used to remove ambiguities in the form factors extraction from
future polarization data.
