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Thaddeus Daniel Pierce was born in Ohio on July 26, 2025, after a pregnancy from an embryo created through IVF in 1994 and frozen for more than 30 years. Guinness World Records recognizes the case as the oldest human embryo used in a successful pregnancy, recording at least 31 years and 56 days in storage. The record is about the embryo’s storage interval—not the age of the newborn by ordinary birth-date convention.
How did an embryo created in 1994 lead to a birth in 2025?
Linda Archerd and her then-husband created four embryos through IVF in 1994. One was transferred and resulted in a daughter; the other three were frozen. Archerd later donated those remaining embryos through Nightlight Christian Adoptions’ Snowflakes program. The Associated Press reported that the Pierces received three embryos through the program: one did not survive thawing, two were transferred, and one implanted.
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The Pierces’ treatment took place at Rejoice Fertility in Knoxville, Tennessee, according to the AP. The pregnancy resulted in Thaddeus’s birth in Ohio on July 26, 2025. The account documents a particular embryo’s journey through donation, thawing, transfer, implantation, and birth; it does not establish that every embryo stored for decades will have the same outcome.
What does the “oldest embryo” record actually mean?
Guinness World Records lists the embryo’s storage interval as at least 31 years and 56 days and recognizes it as the oldest human embryo used in a successful pregnancy. That is a record for the time an embryo spent frozen before a successful pregnancy—not a claim that Thaddeus was born with a 31-year-old body or lived for 31 years before birth.
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The reported previous record involved twins born in 2022 from embryos frozen in 1992. The AP and ABC News Australia reported that comparison. These two cases document successive record outcomes; they do not establish a maximum possible storage duration or a trend in the chances of success.
What is embryo adoption in this case?
In this account, “embryo adoption” describes a donation pathway: Archerd donated embryos she and her former husband had created through IVF, and the Pierces received embryos through Snowflakes, a program operated by Nightlight Christian Adoptions. The AP report says three embryos were offered to the Pierces, after which one did not survive thawing and two were transferred. One implanted and led to the pregnancy.
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The sources describing this family’s pathway do not settle the legal status of embryo donation in every jurisdiction. The reported process should not be treated as a universal legal or clinical description of every embryo donation arrangement.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What does this case tell us—and what does it not tell us?
It shows that an embryo created with IVF in 1994 and stored for more than three decades resulted in a successful pregnancy and birth in this case. It does not show that long storage has no effect on viability, that all embryos can remain viable indefinitely, or that children born after long storage have the same health outcomes as children born after shorter storage. The reporting does not provide a clinical comparison of those outcomes or establish a universal medical storage limit.
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The people involved also described the story in personal terms. Archerd told the AP, “I felt all along that these three little hopes, these little embryos, deserved to live just like my daughter did.” Lindsey Pierce said, “We didn’t go into this thinking about records – we just wanted to have a baby.” Those quotations convey the speakers’ perspectives; they are not medical findings.
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