Lindsey Pierce / MIT Technology Review
Thaddeus Daniel Pierce, the “oldest baby in the world”
An adopted embryo who has been frozen for more than 31 years gave rise to what some claim to be the ‘oldest baby’ in the world. When it was conceived, your parents were babies.
Last week was born, on July 26, Thaddeus Daniel Piercethe “oldest baby in the world”-whose embryo was conceived in May 1994 by an American couple.
The embryo remained frozen in time for decades, thus simultaneously young and old.
The biological mother of the newborn baby, Linda Archerdand then your husband Freeted four embryos while fertilization in vitro (IVF) In the 1990s. After having a girl, the couple kept the other three frozen embryos in the cryopreservation bench.
Linda says she initially planned to use the embryos herself. “I always wanted have another baby. I called them My three small hopes“But Tim thought differently.
Despite having separated from her husband, Linda did not want to get rid of the embryos-he preferred to do so to investigate or give them to another family. Decades later, decided it was time for them to donate.
Lindsey e Tim Piercethe couple of London, in Ohio, who “adopted” the embryo, are the happy beneficiaries of their generosity. “We didn’t get into this thinking we were going to beat records,” Lindsey tells. “We just wanted to have a baby“.
“It seems something out of a science fiction movie“Says Lindsay.“ The baby has a 30 -year -old sister. ”Tim, 34, and Lindsey, 35, were babies when the embryos were raised.
“It was quite surreal“, Says Linda, 62.” It’s hard to believe. “
The longer -frozen embryos that resulted in the birth of a child were cryopreserved in the US during Just over 30 years. In 2022, a double transfer of embryos resulted in twins, recalls the.
According to some estimates, there are currently about 1.5 million embryos frozen in the US.
In recent years, clinics have thawed and transferred frozen embryos increasingly old For ‘adoption’. The result is that some of the newborn children have brothers who are older decades than they.
The Pierce family adopted the embryo of Linda Archherd through the program of Nightlight Christian Adoptions. Beth Buttonthe program’s executive director says that “over 90 % of clinics in the US would not have accepted these embryos.”
As FIV technologies have changed a lot Over the years, and older embryos are stored in ways that may be more complicated to defrost with the most current methods.
The recovery of frozen embryos for decades also raise concerns about its viability.
In 2022, a retrospective study in China found that prolonged storage can negatively affect the survival rate of embryos, although it did not seem to have a significant influence on neonatal health.
Still, the results of the investigation are contradictory. Other studies have found that the duration of cryopreservation does not influence survival of the embryo after defrosting, but most studies are based on embryos that were frozen during much less than 30 years.
US fertility clinics are testing this technology that gives life – and have not yet found their limit.
