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Containers with frozen oocytes and embryos in a fertility clinic (icon image)
Photo: Si And Si / Addictive Stock / IMAGO
"I was five years old when God gave life to Lydia and Timothy," says American believer Philip Ridgeway.
"And since then he has preserved her life." That is something that leaves him speechless, the man from Portland, Oregon, continues.
And he's not the only one.
The story that the US broadcaster CNN is now reporting on is almost unbelievable.
The story of Lydia and Timothy, who were born - after their embryos had been on hold for 29 years and 10 months.
On March 2, Ridgeway's wife, Rachel, transplanted three embryos that had been stored in liquid nitrogen at about minus 200 degrees Celsius as "surplus," meaning unused.
Namely on April 22, 1992.
Some people who want to have children and undergo in vitro fertilization produce more embryos than they need.
This is one of the central points why the procedure is not allowed in some states and is harshly criticized: What should happen to such embryos?
One cannot simply "dispose of" human life, according to ethical concerns.
In some countries, such embryos may be used for scientific research in reproductive medicine, given away or even cryopreserved.
The Ridgeways are Christians.
They already had four children of their own between the ages of two and eight when they decided to bring frozen embryos to life.
The National Embryo Donation Center in Knoxville, Tennessee should help them - and celebrated the newcomers as "the oldest babies in the world".
According to studies, only 25 to 40 percent of such transfers are crowned with success - i.e. with a birth.
Lydia
weighed 2.3 kilograms when she was born on October 31, Timothy just over 3 kilograms, "Babies of good size," carrying mother Rachel told CNN.
The third embryo didn't make it, which was also what the doctors treating her had feared.
But there was no way Rachel Ridgeway wanted to separate the three embryos.
A couple who wished to remain anonymous had the embryos created via IVF.
The man was around 50, the egg donor 34 years old.
According to CNN, the embryos were stored in a laboratory on the US west coast.
In 2007, the couple donated the embryos to the National Embryo Donation Center in Knoxville.
In the hope that another couple who want to have children could use it.
The Ridgeways were interested in such an embryo donation.
These must meet certain standards, and the embryos are examined for possible hereditary or infectious diseases.
The transfer of multiple embryos increases the risk for both mother and child during pregnancy.
Having twins increases the risk of preterm birth, cerebral palsy, autism and stillbirth, according to CNN.
The National Embryo Donation Center is a private, Christian-run organization.
Interested parents must attend a seminar, be married for at least three years, and be "genetically male and female."
According to the center's own information, more than 1,260 children have already been born from embryo donations.
A record was not their concern, say the Ridgeways.
"We didn't want to get the longest-preserved embryos in the world." But: "We wanted the ones that had waited the longest."
However, only parameters such as age, ethnicity, size, weight, health, education, occupation and preferences of the parents were listed in the database - in some cases even with photos.
Based on the assigned list numbers, the Ridgewoods would have tried to determine which embryos had been in the file the longest.
US reproduction experts assume that embryos can be frozen for a long time without damage occurring.
It makes no difference whether they are kept at minus 200 degrees for a week, a month or two decades, reports CNN.
The age of the embryos does not matter, but that of the egg donor does.
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