Author: HAKIZIMANA Maurice
Barely born, they already broke a record: that of coming into the world thirty years after the freezing of their embryos. Lydia and Timothy, daughter and son of Rachel and Philip Ridgeway (already parents of four children), were born on October 31, 2022 in the United States, reports CNN. However, “the embryos at the origin of the two children were conceived by in vitro fertilization and then frozen in April 1992,” specifies France Info. Before them, the record holder was Molly Gibson, an American born in 2020, from an embryo that had been frozen for nearly 27 years.
Lydia and Timothy Ridgeway were born from embryos frozen in April 1992 and were born on October 31, 2022, in the United States.
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Embryos were frozen in 1992, then “born and adopted ” in 2022
It was in April 1992 that an anonymous married couple reportedly decided to freeze five of their embryos, including the twins. “The husband was in his early 50s and they used a 34-year-old egg donor,” CNN reports.
Until 2007, the embryos were stored in a fertility laboratory before being entrusted to the National Embryo Donation Center in Knoxville for “adoption”—a controversial term when it comes to unborn children—by other parents.
“When adoption involves living kids, embryo ‘adoption’ follows the same mechanism as gamete donation: once the child is born, the names of the parents who will raise the child will appear on the birth certificate, not those of the biological parents. In France, we refer to embryo reception rather than adoption,” France Info points out.
Across the Atlantic, while embryo donation is free, “adoption” is subject to a fee. “Embryo donation is also practiced in France, just like gamete donation. It is free and cannot be paid for,” the French media outlet emphasizes.
They were born in “good health” and at “normal weight”
“When we heard about embryo adoption, we thought it was something we would like to do,” the Ridgeways told the American media outlet. The couple reported selecting the embryos “with the earliest donation date.” Speaking to CNN, the twins’ father explained that he and his wife “weren’t looking for the embryos that had been frozen the longest,” specifically, but rather “those that had waited the longest.” In February 2022, the anonymous couple’s five embryos were thawed. Only three of them were viable.
At Rachel Ridgeway’s request, the three remaining embryos were transferred to her in March 2022. Of the three embryos, only two survived the transfer. Timothy and Lydia were born nearly eight months later, on October 31, 2022. At birth, they were “healthy and of normal weight.”
According to studies from the University of New South Wales (Australia) and the 9.baby-Family and Fertility Center (Italy), reported by CNN, in vitro fertilization “results in live birth in 25% to 40% of cases.”
In France, in 2019, 3.7% of children were conceived through medically assisted procreation (MAP), including 2.9% through IVF, according to INED. Most often, it is reserved for couples or single women who cannot have children, or when there is a risk of transmitting a genetic disease to children, according to the Biomedicine Agency, quoted by France Info.
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