Latest news with #embryodonation
CTV News
01-08-2025
- Health
- CTV News
An Ohio couple welcomes a baby boy from a nearly 31-year-old frozen embryo
About two per cent of U.S. births are the result of in vitro fertilization, even less come from donated embryos. A baby boy born last week to an Ohio couple developed from an embryo that had been frozen for more than 30 years in what is believed to be a record length of storage time before a birth. In what's known as embryo adoption, Linda and Tim Pierce used a handful of embryos donated in 1994 in their pursuit of having a child after fighting infertility for years. Their son was born Saturday from an embryo that had been in storage for 11,148 days, which the Pierces' doctor says sets a record. It's a concept that has been around since the 1990s but is gaining attraction as some fertility clinics and advocates, often Christian-centered, oppose discarding leftover embryos because of their belief that life begins at or around conception and that all embryos deserve to be treated like children who need a home. 'I felt all along that these three little hopes, these little embryos, deserved to live just like my daughter did,' said Linda Archerd, 62, who donated her embryos to the Pierces. Just about two per cent of births in the U.S. are the result of in vitro fertilization, and an even smaller fraction involve donated embryos. However, medical experts estimate about 1.5 million frozen embryos are currently being stored throughout the country, with many of those in limbo as parents wrestle with what to do with their leftover embryos created in IVF labs. Further complicating the topic is a 2024 Alabama Supreme Court decision that said that frozen embryos have the legal status of children. State leaders have since devised a temporary solution shielding clinics from liability stemming from that ruling, though questions linger about remaining embryos. Archerd says she turned to IVF in 1994. Back then, the ability to freeze, thaw and transfer embryos was making key progress and opening the door for hopeful parents to create more embryos and increase their chances of a successful transfer. She wound up with four embryos and initially hoped to use them all. But after the birth of her daughter, Archerd and her husband divorced, disrupting her timeline for having more children. As the years turned into decades, Archerd said she was wracked with guilt about what to do with the embryos as storage fees continued to rise. Eventually, she found Snowflakes, a division of Nightlight Christian Adoptions, which offers open adoptions to donors. Archerd was also able to set preferences for what families would adopt her embryos. 'I wanted to be a part of this baby's life,' she said. 'And I wanted to know the adopting parents.' The process was tricky, requiring Archerd to contact her initial fertility doctor in Oregon and dig through paper records to get the proper documentation for the donation. The embryos then had to be shipped from Oregon to the Pierces' doctor in Tennessee. The clinic, Rejoice Fertility in Knoxville, refuses to discard frozen embryos and has become known for handling embryos stored in outdated and older containers. Of the three donated embryos the Pierces received from Archerd, one didn't make the thaw. Two were transferred to Lindsey Pierce's womb, but just one successfully implanted. According to Dr. John David Gordon, the transfer of the nearly 31-year-old embryo marks the longest-frozen embryo to result in a live birth. He would know, Gordon says his clinic assisted in the previous record, when Lydia and Timothy Ridgeway were born from embryos frozen for 30 years, or 10,905 days. 'I think that these stories catch the imagination,' Gordon said. 'But I think they also provide a little bit of a cautionary tale to say: Why are these embryos sitting in storage? You know, why do we have this problem?' In a statement, Lindsey and Tim Pierce said the clinic's support was just what they needed. 'We didn't go into this thinking about records — we just wanted to have a baby,' Lindsey Pierce said. For Archerd, the donation process has been an emotional roller coaster. Relief that her embryos finally found a home, sadness it couldn't be with her and a little anxiety about what the future holds next, with possibly meeting the Pierces and the baby in person. 'I'm hoping that they're going to send pictures,' she said, noting that the parents have already sent several after the birth. 'I'd love to meet them some day. That would be a dream come true to meet — meet them and the baby.' Kimberlee Kruesi, The Associated Press
The Guardian
31-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
World's ‘oldest baby' born from embryo frozen in 1994
The world's 'oldest baby' has been born in the US from an embryo that was frozen in 1994, it has been reported. Thaddeus Daniel Pierce was born on 26 July in Ohio to Lindsey and Tim Pierce, using an 'adopted' embryo from Linda Archerd, 62, from more than 30 years ago. In the early 1990s, Archerd and her then husband decided to try in vitro fertilisation (IVF) after struggling to become pregnant. In 1994 four embryos resulted – one was transferred to Archerd and resulted in the birth of a daughter, who is now 30 and mother to a 10-year-old. The other embryos were cryopreserved and stored. 'We didn't go into it thinking we would break any records,' Lindsey told the MIT Technology Review, which first reported the story. 'We just wanted to have a baby.' IVF is a type of fertility treatment where eggs are retrieved from a woman's ovaries and fertilised with sperm in a laboratory setting. The resulting embryos are then transferred back into the womb. The embryos can also be frozen and stored for future use. Archerd was awarded custody of the embryos after divorcing her husband. She then found out about embryo 'adoption', a type of embryo donation in which both donors and recipients have a say in whom they donate their embryos to. Archerd had a preference for her embryo to be 'adopted' by a white, Christian married couple, leading to the Pierces adopting the embryo. 'We had a rough birth, but we're both doing well now,' Lindsey said. 'He is so chill. We are in awe that we have this precious baby.' Archerd said: '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 implanted the embryo is run by John Gordon, a reproductive endocrinologist and reformed presbyterian who is working to reduce the number of embryos in storage. Speaking of the embryo transfer, Gordon said: 'We have certain guiding principles, and they're coming from our faith. Every embryo deserves a chance at life and that 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 the proportion of IVF births has increased from 1.3% in 2000 to 3.1% in 2023, the equivalent of one in 32 UK births, roughly one child in every classroom. For women aged 40 to 44, 11% of UK births were a result of IVF, up from 4% in 2000, accounting for 0.5% of all births, according to the Human Fertilisation and Embryo Authority (HFEA). In the US, about 2% of births are from IVF.
