3-D illustration of a cryopreserved foetus frozen into ice cube
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The infant is an instant celebrity —from the moment he was born. Thaddeus Daniel Pierce is a name you might want to remember, for quiz contests and general knowledge tests to come.
Little Mr Pierce was actually created 30 years ago and ‘lived’ frozen as an embryo.
The story goes back to when Linda Archerd, after failing fertility treatments, decided to try what was then a new technology — IVF — with her then husband. This resulted in four embryos. One was implanted in Archerd’s uterus and resulted in a baby girl, who is now 30 years old.
The other three embryos were cryopreserved. They survived their parents’ divorce and remained in the mother’s custody.
The mother guarded them fiercely, wanting to neither throw them away nor give them up for research. One of them ended up with Lindsey and Tim Pierce.
And, on July 29, a star was born!
MIT Technology Review used this development as a peg to craft a detailed article on the technology.
This is not the first time that a baby has been birthed from a long-frozen embryo. On December 3, 2020, The New York Times reported that a baby girl was born out of a 27-year-old embryo.
Published on August 25, 2025
