Couple claim frozen embryo baby record
UNITED STATES: When Tina and Benjamin Gibson married, they knew it was unlikely that they would naturally have children, given Benjamin’s cystic fibrosis.
But now Tina, 26, has given birth to a daughter, Emma - born from an embryo that was frozen 24 years ago, thought to be a new world record.
‘‘If this embryo had been born when it was supposed to have been, we could have been best friends. I’m only 25,’’ she said.
The Tennessee couple had fostered children and considered adoption, before they were made aware of embryo freezing.
Around 20 per cent of in vitro fertilisations (IVF) result in leftover eggs, leaving the couples involved with three options: they can have them disposed of, donated for research, or donated to another couple. Eggs donated to other couples can wait in frozen suspension for years before being chosen, and are colloquially known as ‘‘snow babies’’.
Tina Gibson submitted the paperwork for embryo adoption in August 2016. After undergoing a series of tests and gaining state approval, the Gibsons spent two weeks reading the profiles of 300 donors to decide on a match.
Three eggs from an anonymous donor were transferred to Tina Gibson and one successfully implanted, resulting in her pregnancy. It was then that doctors informed the couple that they had made a potentially recordbreaking selection.
‘‘People say, ‘Oh, it’s science’, but no, I think it’s a gift from the Lord,’’ she said.
The National Embryo Donation Centre in Knoxville, Tennessee city, which enabled Gibson’s pregnancy, said their newborn daughter held the record for the longestfrozen embryo to come to birth.
The embryo was frozen on October 14, 1992, when Tina Gibson was about 18 months old. It was thawed on March 13 this year.
However, experts said it was impossible to verify whether the Gibson family held the record. Zaher Merhi, director of IVF research and development at the New Hope Fertility Centre in New York, said companies were not required to report the age of the embryos they transferred, just the outcome of the pregnancies, and ‘‘nobody has these records’’.
Some experts say the previous record was set in 2011, when a woman gave birth to a boy born from a frozen embryo created 20 years earlier.