A baby has recently been born in the US from an embryo frozen three decades ago! It is believed that Thaddeus Daniel Pierce, who was born on July 26, 2025 from the embryo that had been cryopreserved since 1994, is the world’s oldest baby.

Lindsey and Tim Pierce, residents of Ohio, had been planning to have a baby for a long time. However, Lindsey experienced difficulties in getting pregnant mainly because of azoospermia, a rare condition in which no measurable sperm is present in the semen of the male partner. Hence, the couple decided to adopt the embryo from 62-year-old Linda Archerd, the biological mother, who had it stored in 1994.

Linda (and her former husband) opted for In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) in the 1990s after struggling to conceive for nearly six years. In 1994, one of four embryos was transferred to Linda and resulted in the birth of a daughter (who is now 30 and the mother of a 10-year-old daughter), while the other three embryos were cryopreserved and stored under the Snowflakes Embryo Adoption Programme run by the Nightlight Christian Adoptions agency. Although Linda divorced her husband later, she won custody of those three embryos and kept them in storage. Doctors used one of the three embryos to give birth of Thaddeus. After receiving this information, Linda said: “The baby has a 30-year-old biological sister. It’s been pretty surreal. It’s hard to even believe.“

Meanwhile, researchers at the Columbia University Fertility Centre (CUFC) have claimed that the STAR (Sperm Tracking and Recovery) method helped Lindsey to get pregnant. They examined the semen sample of Tim with the AI-powered system and managed to find the hidden sperm. After recovering the sperm, they used it to fertilise Linda’s egg via IVF and Lindsey became the first-ever woman to conceive through the STAR method.

Lindsey explained that she and Tim had no plan to create any records as they just wanted to have a baby. She told MIT Technology Review: “We had a rough birth but we are both doing well now. He is so chill. We are in awe that we have this precious baby.” She added: “The baby has a 30-year-old sister. It’s like something out of a sci-fi movie.“

Interestingly, the record of giving birth to the world’s oldest baby was previously held by Rachel and Philip Ridgeway. They had twins from 30-year-old embryos (frozen way back in 1992) in 2022, with the help of Rejoice Fertility IVF Clinic’s John Gordon. Gordon, who also treated the Pierces couple, has stressed that the Ridgeways are “such a lovely couple” whose twins are “growing like weeds”.

Elizabeth Button, the Vice President of Snowflakes, has informed the press that the embryo adoption programme has decided to honour Linda for donating her remaining embryos, and the Pierce couple for adopting one of those embryos. “Though we encourage placing families to make decisions sooner rather than later regarding their remaining embryos, this story affirms that frozen embryos do not have a shelf life. All are deserving of the opportunity to be born,” she stated.

It may be noted that a process, called the Embryo Adoption, is in use in the US mainly to help infertile couples with unused and leftover frozen eggs from a bank. In the case of Lindsey, the donated embryo was in storage for 11,148 days! Talking to The Indian Express, Dr Anjali Malpani, an infertility specialist and Emeritus Professor of Gynaecology and Obstetrics at the Seth G S Medical College and KEM Hospital in Mumbai, stated: “If the embryo quality is good and the freezing is done as per accepted standards, an embryo can last decades. Mind you this was a procedure done in 1994. Now there have been so many advancements to preserve the embryo.” She further said: “Many mistakenly believe that the baby would be born abnormal if the embryo is frozen for a long time. Fact is freezing keeps a healthy embryo as it is.”

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das