A newborn named Thaddeus has set a new world record after being born from an embryo that was frozen in 1994, making him the world’s oldest baby by embryo age.
Lindsey Pierce, 35, and her husband Tim, 34, from Ohio, welcomed baby Thaddeus on July 26 after adopting the 31-year-old embryo.
The couple had faced nearly eight years of infertility before Lindsey successfully conceived through embryo adoption.
The embryo was originally created during an IVF cycle in 1994 by Linda Archerd and her husband, who were also experiencing fertility issues at the time.
One of the four embryos created back then led to the birth of Linda’s daughter, now 30 years old, while the remaining three were preserved.
Linda, now 62, retained custody of the embryos after divorcing her husband but never used them, later deciding to place them for adoption through Snowflakes, a Christian embryo adoption agency.
Because of the embryo’s age, it was listed under the Open Hearts program, designed for ‘hard to place’ embryos with lower chances of success.
Lindsey and Tim eventually adopted the embryo through this program, leading to a successful pregnancy and the birth of Thaddeus.
Lindsey described the birth as “rough” but said both she and Thaddeus are now doing well, calling the experience “surreal” and “hard to even believe.”
The family didn’t expect to set a world record, with Lindsey saying, “We just wanted to have a baby.”
Linda expressed joy upon seeing Thaddeus’s photos, noting his resemblance to her daughter as a baby.
Prior to Thaddeus’s birth, the oldest successful embryo births involved twins born from 30-year-old embryos in Oregon in 2022.
