A baby boy born in Ohio, United States, has been identified as the world's 'oldest baby' after being born from an embryo that was frozen in 1994. Thaddeus Daniel Pierce was born on 26 July to Lindsey and Tim Pierce, using an embryo that had been stored for over 30 years.
The embryo was originally created in 1994 for Linda Archerd, now 62, and her then husband. After IVF treatment, one embryo led to the birth of a daughter, now 30, while the remaining embryos were cryopreserved. Following a divorce, Archerd was awarded custody of the embryos and later chose to donate them through an embryo 'adoption' programme.
Archerd expressed a preference for the embryo to be placed with a white, Christian married couple, leading to the Pierces adopting it. Lindsey Pierce told MIT Technology Review, 'We didn't go into it thinking we would break any records. We just wanted to have a baby.'
The fertility clinic involved is run by Dr John Gordon, a reproductive endocrinologist who believes every embryo deserves a chance at life. He stated, 'The only embryo that cannot result in a healthy baby is the embryo not given the opportunity to be transferred into a patient.'
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. The birth of Thaddeus highlights the increasing possibilities of using long-frozen embryos in fertility treatments.
