Lydia-Ann and Timothy-Ronald Ridgeway were born in Tennessee on October 31, 2022. Two twins were born in the state of Tennessee from embryos that had been frozen for 30 years. This is the longest time in history that frozen embryos have “waited” to be born.
Since April 22, 1992, the embryos have been stored in a cryobank in liquid nitrogen at a temperature of -128C while maintaining their viability. They were then thawed and transferred to the expectant mother, Rachel Ridgeway, who successfully delivered the twins on October 31 of this year. “It is unbelievable,” said the happy father, Philip Ridgeway.
According to the National Embryo Donation Center, a private organization that claims to have assisted in the birth of over 1200 children from embryos, Lydia-Ann and Timothy-Ronald Ridgeway are likely to set a new record. The previous record belonged to Molly Gibson (also born thanks to the NEDC), who was born in 2020 from an embryo that had been frozen for 27 years.
“The decision to adopt these embryos should give confidence to patients who are considering whether anyone would want embryos created 5, 10 or 20 years ago,” says Dr. John David Gordon, who performed the embryo transplant. “And the answer to that question is a resounding yes!”
The twin embryos in question were created by in vitro fertilization in the early 1990s for an unnamed couple. The embryos were stored in a laboratory on the west coast of the United States until 2007, when the couple decided to transfer them to the NEDC in Knoxville, Tennessee, for someone else to use (the NEDC is also involved in this activity for religious reasons).
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Earlier this year, embryologists from the partner clinic NEDC thawed the embryos and transplanted them into the uterus. As stated in the NEDC statement, the Center hopes that the news of the birth of healthy babies will encourage other prospective parents to experience the joy of adopting children born from embryos.
At the time of the twins’ birth, Riddgeway already had four biological children, ranging in age from one to eight, all born naturally, without donors or artificial insemination. “I was only five years old when God gave life to Lydia and Timothy, and He has sustained them ever since,” said Philip Ridgway in an interview with CNN. “So in a sense they are our older children, even though they are the youngest.”
According to the NEDC, there is no time limit on the storage of frozen embryos. However, the likelihood of children being born from embryos conceived 100 years ago is not very high, as this technology is relatively new: the first child born from a frozen embryo was born in 1984, in Australia.