World’s oldest baby born from 30-year-old embryo in Ohio

CapeTalk's Clarence Ford speaks to Barbara Friedman, about trending online topics.

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A healthy baby boy named Thaddeus Daniel Pierce was born on July 26, 2025, in Ohio, using an embryo that had been frozen since 1994.

The embryo, now recognised as the oldest successfully used in a birth, was originally created through IVF over three decades ago.

The embryo belonged to Linda Archerd, now 62, who underwent IVF with her then-husband in 1994.

The couple created four viable embryos. One was transferred at the time, resulting in the birth of a daughter who is now 30 years old and has a 10-year-old daughter of her own.

The remaining three embryos were cryopreserved in the hopes of future use.

However, following Linda’s divorce and menopause, she revisited the idea of what to do with the frozen embryos. After being awarded custody of them, she learned about embryo "adoption", a form of embryo donation where both the donor and recipient families are involved in the selection process.

In November 2024, one of those embryos was transferred into the uterus of Lindsey Pierce. She and her husband Tim welcomed baby Thaddeus over 30 years after the embryo was first created. In a striking twist, Tim was just a toddler himself when Thaddeus’s embryo came into existence.

The embryo survived decades of cryopreservation and a successful implantation thanks to the expertise of a Tennessee fertility clinic that specializes in thawing and transferring long-frozen embryos, regardless of age.

"The parents are delighted... but is the baby 30-years-old because it was frozen as an embryo? It's an interesting conundrum, isn't it?"

- Barbara Friedman, Barbs Wire - CapeTalk

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