In what experts are calling a remarkable moment in reproductive medicine, a baby boy has been born in the US from an embryo that had been frozen for three decades.
Thaddeus Daniel Pierce was born on July 26 in Ohio to Lindsey and Tim Pierce, using an embryo created in 1994, making it the world’s oldest-known embryo to result in a live birth.
The embryo came from Linda Archerd, now 62, who underwent IVF with her then-husband in the early 1990s after struggling to conceive. One of the four embryos from that cycle led to the birth of her daughter 30 years ago. The remaining embryos were cryopreserved and remained frozen for more than 30 years.
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Years later, Archerd was awarded custody of the embryos after her divorce and chose to donate them through embryo adoption, a process that allows intended parents to adopt unused embryos with consent from the donors. She hoped the embryos would go to a white, Christian, married couple, and the Pierces matched that profile.
“We didn’t go into it thinking we would break any records,” said Lindsey Pierce. “We just wanted to have a baby.”
While the birth was not without complications, both mother and baby are now doing well. “He is so chill. We are in awe that we have this precious baby,” she added.
Archerd, who has remained connected to the family, was amazed by the resemblance. “The first thing I noticed when Lindsey sent me his pictures was how much he looks like my daughter when she was a baby. They are definitely siblings,” she said.
“The only embryo that cannot become a healthy baby is the one that isn’t given the opportunity to be transferred,” Dr. John Gordon, a reproductive endocrinologist who performed the embryo transfer, said.
