Couple welcomes world's 'oldest baby' from 30-year-old frozen embryo

A baby boy named Thaddeus Daniel Pierce was born on 26 July from an embryo that had been frozen for more than 30 years.

The embryo was cryopreserved in 1994, according to MIT Technology Review, and has now broken the record for the longest-preserved embryo that resulted in a live birth.

The parents, Lindsey and Tim Pierce from Ohio, adopted the embryo in hopes of having a child of their own. They described the experience as "something from a sci-fi movie."

“We didn’t go into this thinking about records; we just wanted to have a baby,” said Lindsey Pierce.

According to ABC News Australia, the embryos were originally donated by 62-year-old Linda Archerd. She had frozen four embryos through the Snowflakes Embryo Adoption Program by Nightlight Christian Adoptions. She and her husband used only one embryo for their own pregnancy.

After divorcing her husband, Archerd chose to keep the embryos and make them available for adoption. Through Snowflakes, she was able to select the adopting family. She specified that she wanted a white, married Christian couple from the U.S., explaining that, “I didn’t want them to go out of the country.”

“And being Christian is very important to me, because I am,” she added.

“I felt all along that these three little hopes, these little embryos deserved to live just like my daughter did,” Archerd said.

One of the embryos did not survive the thawing process. Two were transferred to Lindsey Pierce’s womb, but only one implanted successfully. Reflecting on the birth, Lindsey told a U.S. Journal, “It’s hard to even believe.”

Archerd later compared baby Thaddeus to baby photos of her biological daughter, saying, “I pulled out my baby book and compared them side by side, and there is no doubt that they are siblings.”

She also expressed excitement about meeting Thaddeus and the Pierce family in person.

“I wanted to be a part of this baby’s life... and I wanted to know the adopting parents,” Archerd said.