A baby boy born in Ohio, US, has been named the world's 'oldest baby' after being conceived from an embryo that was frozen in 1994. Thaddeus Daniel Pierce was born on 26 July to Lindsey and Tim Pierce, using an 'adopted' embryo donated by Linda Archerd, now 62.
In the early 1990s, Archerd and her then husband turned to in vitro fertilisation (IVF) after struggling to conceive. Four embryos were created in 1994; one led to the birth of a daughter, now 30, while the others were cryopreserved. After a divorce, Archerd was awarded custody of the embryos and later chose to donate them through an embryo 'adoption' programme, preferring a white, Christian married couple.
The Pierces adopted the embryo, and Lindsey said: 'We didn't go into it thinking we would break any records. We just wanted to have a baby.' She added: 'We had a rough birth, but we're both doing well now. He is so chill. We are in awe that we have this precious baby.'
Archerd noted the resemblance between Thaddeus and her daughter, saying: 'The first thing that I noticed when Lindsey sent me his pictures is how much he looks like my daughter when she was a baby. I pulled out my baby book and compared them side by side, and there is no doubt that they are siblings.'
The fertility clinic that transferred the embryo is run by Dr John Gordon, a reproductive endocrinologist who said: 'We have certain guiding principles, and they're coming from our faith. Every embryo deserves a chance at life.' In the UK, IVF births have risen from 1.3% in 2000 to 3.1% in 2023, while in the US about 2% of births are from IVF.
