30-Year-Old Baby Born in Ohio

His name is Thaddeus Daniel Pierce and he now holds the distinction of being the oldest baby ever born.

Conceived back in 1994, and adopted as a frozen embryo by Lindsey and Tim Pierce, Thaddeus has a biological twin sister who is 30 1/2 years of age.

Tim, Thaddeus’ adopted father, was a toddler back when his son was frozen in his embryonic state along with two other siblings. Linda, his biological mother, had been struggling to conceive with her husband. The Ohio couple began exploring In vitro fertilization (IVF) and with the help of the technology, created four embryos. They implanted one in Linda’s womb and froze the remaining three.

Now 62, Linda and her husband planned on implanting the remaining embryos but never did.

“I always wanted another baby desperately,” she reflected. “I called them my three little hopes.”

A Christian, Linda said discarding or turning them over for research was never an option. Instead, the Archerd family paid to have them frozen and stored. Services of this nature can run between hundreds of dollars to $1500 annually. Having divorced, and when it became obvious she wasn’t going to implant any of the remaining embryos, she decided to donate them to an adoption agency that operates what’s become known as a “snowflake” program.

They’re called this because embryos, like snowflakes, are all beautiful and unique.

Nobody knows for certain how many embryos are frozen and stored in the United States, but officials estimate it’s somewhere between 400,000 and 1,500,000.

As it is, Thaddeus’ escape from his frozen state was a statistical anomaly. The odds of a preborn baby making it back to the womb and then out into the world are astronomically long – and therein lies just some of the ethical and theological concerns and challenges with IVF.

IVF is a multi-billion-dollar industry. Often managed and promoted by people either oblivious to or uninterested in the moral minefields, embryos are often rated and graded by cold hearted calculators who believe the end justifies the means.

Embryologists base their evaluation on the quality of an embryo based on its rate of cell growth in its first three days, its degree of fragmentation, and the evenness of its cells. It’s then given a number between one and four, with the four meaning it’s in the best possible condition.

We don’t know how many “ones” or “twos” are destroyed all together, but the number would inevitably be heartbreaking.

Couples interested in adopting a frozen embryo complete a required home study. The home study will help prepare the family for parenting any resulting children and communicating with the placing family. It includes a background check on the adopting family members and properly vets everyone involved.

The legal side of embryo adoption is governed by property law since embryos are considered to be property and not people in the United States. Once a contract is signed by both the placing and adopting families, the adopting family “owns” the embryos and the placing family has terminated all of their rights and responsibilities to the embryos.

We celebrate Thaddeus’ birth and liberation from his three decade plus frozen state. We applaud the decision to preserve his life all these years and admire and laud the Pierce’s willingness to step out in faith and adopt this precious little boy.

Thaddeus’ birth also calls into the spotlight all those embryos still in limbo. It commands and demands thoughtful and critical consideration for couple’s currently struggling with infertility and evaluating whether IVF is something they want to pursue. Focus on the Family believes couples who do pursue it can reduce the moral and ethical concerns surrounding the procedure. But our hearts still ache over the conundrum that nevertheless persists at cryobanks all across the country.

Image credit: Lindsey Pierce