In an extraordinary medical breakthrough, a baby boy named Thaddeus Daniel Pierce has been born in Ohio from an embryo that was frozen over three decades ago—back in 1994.

Thaddeus was delivered on July 26, 2025, to Lindsey and Tim Pierce, a couple who adopted the embryo through a special process known as embryo adoption. The embryo originally belonged to 62-year-old Linda Archerd, who created it during an IVF attempt with her husband in the early 1990s.

At that time, Archerd underwent in vitro fertilization (IVF) due to fertility challenges. Of the four embryos created, one led to the birth of her daughter—now 30 years old and a mother herself. The remaining three embryos were frozen and stored for future use.

Years later, following a divorce, Archerd maintained custody of the embryos. She eventually chose to place them for embryo adoption—preferring that they go to a white, Christian married couple. That’s when the Pierces were matched and accepted as recipients.

“We weren’t trying to set any records—we just wanted to have a child,” Lindsey shared in an interview with the MIT Technology Review, which first broke the story.

Despite a challenging birth, Lindsey confirmed both she and baby Thaddeus are doing well. “He’s calm and sweet—we are just in awe that we finally have him in our arms.”

Archerd expressed deep emotion after seeing baby photos of Thaddeus. “He looks so much like my daughter did as a baby. I even pulled out her baby pictures, and the resemblance is striking. They truly are siblings.”

The embryo transfer was carried out by Dr. John Gordon, a reproductive specialist with strong faith-based principles. His clinic promotes embryo transfers as a way to give every embryo a chance at life.

“From our perspective, no embryo should remain in storage indefinitely. Every embryo has the potential to become a healthy baby—if given the opportunity,” Dr. Gordon explained.

Embryo freezing is a part of IVF, a fertility treatment that involves retrieving eggs, fertilizing them in a lab, and implanting embryos in a woman’s womb. Some embryos are frozen for later use—sometimes for decades, as in this remarkable case.

The number of babies born through IVF continues to grow globally. In the UK, IVF births rose from 1.3% in 2000 to 3.1% in 2023. Among women aged 40 to 44, IVF accounts for 11% of births in the UK. Meanwhile, in the United States, about 2% of births result from IVF.

Thaddeus’s birth is not just a medical feat—it also highlights how technology and science continue to reshape our understanding of life, family, and fertility.