The boy, born last week to an Ohio couple, developed from an embryo that had been frozen for more than 30 years in what is considered a record-length prenatal storage time.
In what is called embryo adoption, Lindsay and Tim Pierce used a small number of embryos donated in 1994 to pursue having a child after fighting infertility for many years. Their son was born from an embryo that was kept for 11,148 days on Saturday.
This is a concept that has been around since the 1990s, but has gained appeal as a Christian-centric breeding clinic or advocate, and is often at the heart of Christianity, so life begins with conception and throws away the rest of the embryos because of the belief that every embryo deserves to be treated like a child who needs a home.
“These three little hopes, these little embryos, felt they deserved to live the way my daughter did,” said 62-year-old Linda Archeld, who had donated her embryo to the pier.
Approximately 2% of US births are the result of in vitro fertilization, with a smaller proportion of which include donated embryos.
However, medical professionals estimate that around 1.5 million frozen embryos are currently stored nationwide, and many of them remain in Limbo as their parents struggle with what to do with the remaining embryos created in the IVF lab.
Compounding the topic even further is the 2024 Alabama Supreme Court decision that stated that frozen embryos possessed child legal status. State leaders then came up with a question about the remaining embryos, but they devised a temporary solution to protect the clinic from liability arising from the verdict.
Archerd says he turned his eyes to IVF in 1994. At the time, the ability to freeze, thaw and transfer embryos had made important advances, opening the door for hopeful parents to create more embryos and increase the likelihood of successful transfers.
She was caught up in four embryos and initially wanted to use all of them. However, after the birth of their daughter, Archeld and her husband divorced, disrupting the timeline for having more children.
As decades went up, Archeld said he felt guilty about what to do with the embryo as the storage fee continued to rise.
Eventually she found Snowflakes, a division of Night Light Christian adoption. This provides open adoption to donors that enable people like Archerd. She was also able to set preferences for what the family would adopt her embryo.
“I wanted to be a part of this baby’s life,” she said. “And I wanted to know the adopted parents.”
The process was tricky, with Archeld having to contact Oregon’s first fertility doctor and dig into the paper records to obtain the appropriate documents for donations. The embryos had to be shipped from Oregon to Pierce’s doctors in Tennessee. The clinic was pleased with Knoxville’s infertility, refusing to throw away frozen embryos, becoming known for processing embryos stored in outdated and old containers.
Of the three donated embryos received from Archerd, one did not thaw. The two were transferred to Lindsay Piercing’s womb, but only one was implanted.
Dr. John David Gordon said that the migration of an embryo at almost 31 years old will be born marking the longest frozen embryo. Gordon says he knows that when Lydia and Timothy Ridgeway were born from embryos frozen for 30 years, or 10, 905 days, his clinic supported the previous record.
“I think these stories capture the imagination,” Gordon said. “But they also know why these embryos are sitting in storage? Do you know why this is the problem?”
In a statement, Lindsay and Tim Pierce said that the clinic’s support is exactly what they need.
“We didn’t think about records. We just wanted to have a baby,” Lindsay Pierce said.
For Archerd, the donation process has been an emotional roller coaster. Ah relief that her embryo had finally found a home, it was the sadness that she couldn’t be with her, and perhaps meeting the piercings and the baby in person, which made her feel a bit uneasy about what the future will happen next.
“I hope they send me photos,” she said. “I want to meet them one day. The dream is to meet them and the baby.”
