An embryo created through IVF 24 years ago, has just been born. From the Daily Mail story:
A 26-year-old woman has given birth to a baby girl from a donated embryo which was frozen for 24 years – the longest-ever frozen embryo to come to term.
Tina Gibson’s baby Emma Wren was conceived and fertilized 24 years ago in 1992, but the embryo was frozen instead of implanted.
Tina, who was born in 1991, could not conceive naturally so she and her husband Benjamin decided to adopt a frozen embryo from the National Embryo Donation Center in East Tennessee. The process is like adoption, but the baby grows inside the adoptive mother.
Biologically, Emma is only 1 1/2 years younger than her mother. Remarkable.
I think this story should affect the way we look at the moral value of frozen IVF embryos. They are not just so many frozen cells but living human organisms capable of being gestated to healthy birth. Indeed, that was the purpose for which they were brought into being.
That is what Snowflake Embryo Adoption Project is all about. For those interested, hit this link.
And here’s the link to the National Embryo Adoption Center, which was involved in this particular adoption.