In Ohio, USA, a boy was born from an embryo that had been in a cryo-chamber for over three decades, setting a record for storage. The child's parents are 35-year-old Lindsey and 34-year-old Tim Pierce, thanks to a unique embryo adoption procedure, UNN reports with reference to the BBC.
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The Ohio couple, 35-year-old Lindsey and 34-year-old Tim Pierce, became parents to a son, Thaddeus Daniel Pierce, on Saturday. He was born from an embryo that had been frozen for over 30 years, which reportedly set a new world record. The previous record belonged to a pair of twins born in 2022 from embryos frozen in 1992.
Tim and Lindsey tried unsuccessfully to become parents for seven years before deciding to take advantage of the opportunity to adopt an embryo, which was created in 1994 by the now 62-year-old Linda Archard with her then-husband through IVF.
At that time, the couple received four embryos. One of them became Ms. Archard's daughter, who is now 30 years old, and she froze the rest and left them for storage. After divorcing her husband, Linda did not want to destroy them or transfer them for scientific research.
"It was important that I remained connected to the child, because she would be a relative of my daughter," she explained in an interview with MIT Technology Review.
For decades, Linda paid several thousand dollars a year to store the embryos until she found the Christian agency Nightlight Christian Adoptions, which runs an embryo adoption program called "Snowflakes." This program allows donors to choose families themselves, specifying their wishes regarding the religion, race, or nationality of the prospective parents. Archard frankly stated that she preferred "a married couple of white Christians living in the USA" because she did not want the embryos to "leave the country." This is how she connected with the Pierce family.
At Rejoice Fertility clinic in Tennessee, where the couple underwent the "transfer" procedure, it was emphasized that they are ready to transfer any embryos, regardless of their age. Lindsey Pierce noted that she and her husband did not aim to break a record: "We just wanted to have a baby." Archard admits that she has not yet seen the boy in person, but already notices features in him similar to her daughter.