A baby from in vitro fertilization made in 1994 was born in the United States last July. It was adopted by a couple via a Christian agency of “adoption of embryos”.
The “older baby in the world” was born. Thaddeus Daniel Pierce was created on July 26 in the United States, almost 30 years after being frozen in the state of embryo, reports MIT Technology Review.
Parents, Tim and Lindsey Pierce, received the embryo via Nightlight, a Christian agency specializing in adoption.
“It is so calm. We are amazed to have this precious baby,” said Lindsey to the MIT magazine.
Parents on the component
The biological mother is called Linda Archerd. In the 1990s, she made in vitro fertilization with her husband (IVF) and created four healthy embryos. One of them was transferred to his uterus, giving birth to his daughter. The other three were frozen in the hope of one day having another baby.
But Linda and her husband separated, and the menopause made the project of another child impossible. Linda then chose to donate her embryos via the Christian adoption agency Nightlight, which allows her to have his say on future parents.
The agency has selected Lindsey and Tim Pierce, a couple of Ohio who were only young children when the embryo was designed, for her. Married, “Caucasians” and Christians, they correspond to the criteria set by Linda. In November 2024, two of the three frozen embryos were transferred to the Lindsey uterus and one of them developed in fetus. Nine months later, the mother gave birth smoothly.
“We haven’t embarked on this adventure thinking of breaking records. We just wanted to have a baby,” Lindsey Pierce told MIT Technology Review.
“He looks like my daughter”
After the birth of Thaddeus, Linda, now 62, said that she was looking forward to meeting the child and said he looked like her daughter.
“The first thing I noticed when Lindsey sent me his photos, it is how much he looks like my daughter when she was baby,” she said.
Other babies have already been born from frozen embryos of 27 or 30 years, notes MIT Technology Review. But with 31 years of cryitagement, Thaddeus broke the world record.