A baby boy born last week was from an Ohio couple who developed from an embryo that has been frozen for more than 30 years and is believed to be a record storage time before birth.
In the so-called embryo adoption, Lindsey and Tim Pierce donated a small number of embryos in 1994 in pursuit of years of infertility and sterility. Their son was born Saturday in an embryo that had been stored for 11,148 days, and Pierces’ doctor said it was recorded.
This is a concept that has been around since the 1990s, but has attracted attention due to certain Christian-centered fertility clinics and advocates, against discarding remaining embryos because they believe that life begins or around and that all embryos should be considered as children in need of home.
“I always felt these three little hopes that these little embryos should live like my daughter,” said Linda Archerd, 62.
In the United States, approximately 2% of births are the result of in vitro fertilization, and even smaller portions involve donated embryos.
However, medical experts estimate that around 1.5 million frozen embryos are currently stored nationwide, many of whom are parents, doing things with the remaining embryos created in IVF Labs.
Further complicating this topic is a 2024 Alabama Supreme Court ruling that says frozen embryos have the legal status of children. After that, the state leaders designed an interim solution to keep the clinic free from the ruling, although the question of the question was about the remaining embryos.
Archerd said she turned to the IVF in 1994. At that time, the ability to freeze, thaw and transfer embryos was making critical progress and opened the door to hopeful parents to create more embryos and increase the chances of successful transfer.
She encountered four embryos and initially hoped to use them all. But after the birth of her daughter, Archerd divorced her husband, destroying her timeline for having more children.
“We didn’t think of this idea about the record, we just wanted to have a child,” Lindsey Pierce said here to her husband Tim. – Joy and John David Gordon/AP
As decades have changed, Archerd said she feels ingrained in how to deal with embryos as storage fees continue to rise.
Eventually, she found Snowflake, the department of Luminous Christian adoption that allowed public adoption for people like Archerd. She was also able to set preferences for the family’s preferences to adopt her embryos.
“I want to be a part of this baby’s life,” she said. “And I want to meet foster parents.”
The process was tricky, requiring the archer to contact her initial fertility doctor in Oregon and then dig out paper records to obtain appropriate donation documents. The embryos must then be shipped from Oregon to Dr. Pierces, Tennessee. The clinic is Knoxville’s fertility, refusing to discard frozen embryos and is known for handling embryos stored in obsolete and older containers.
Of the three donated embryos, the embryos received by Pierces from Archerd did not melt. The two were transferred to Lindsey Pierce’s uterus, but only one was successfully implanted.
According to Dr. John David Gordon, the transfer of embryos at nearly 31 years old marks the longest embryo, leading to the on-site birth. He knows, Gordon said his clinic assisted with previous records when Lydia and Timothy Ridgeway freeze from embryos for 30 years or 10,905 days.
“I think these stories aroused imagination,” Gordon said. “But I think they also offer a cautionary story: Why are these embryos sitting in storage? You know, why are we having this problem?”
Lindsey and Tim Pierce said in a statement that the clinic’s support was exactly what they needed.
“We didn’t think about the record-we just wanted to have a baby,” Lindsey Pierce said.
For Archerd, the donation process has been an emotional roller coaster. Her embryo finally found her home, it was impossible to be with her, and she had some anxiety about her future and might meet Pierces and Baby in person.
“I hope they’re sending pictures,” she said, noting that her parents had sent out several pictures after they were born. “I would love to meet them one day. It would be a dream come true – to meet them and the baby.”
For more CNN news and newsletters, create an account on CNN.com
