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Baby Born From Embryo Frozen When Mother Aged Two

I'm baffled by this. Why did this woman conceive a baby when she was less than 2 years old?
Or was it donated by someone else? This was not mentioned in the article.
 
I'm baffled by this. Why did this woman conceive a baby when she was less than 2 years old?
Or was it donated by someone else? This was not mentioned in the article.

It was a donation mediated by the non-profit National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC):

https://www.embryodonation.org/about/

In-vitro fertilization procedures can generate multiple embryos, not all of which end up being used by the biological donors / parents-to-be.

The bit that blows my mind is NEDC's claim there are an estimated 700,000 to 1,000,000 leftover embryos stored in the USA.

In effect, NEDC serves as an adoption agency.
 
Without wanting to sound mushy and Disney about it all, it's weird that she's sort of already going to be twenty four and a half years old when she's born but I'm glad she's here however she's got here.

If this embryo technique is that good, perhaps we'll (as a species) see babies being born that are already a thousand years old + one day ?.
 
Without wanting to sound mushy and Disney about it all, it's weird that she's sort of already going to be twenty four and a half years old when she's born ...

Most everybody's circa 0.75 years old when they're born, using that logic. Legal age begins with birth, so I don't see how this long a pre-birth screws up anything relating to the baby's legal status.

... Unless we start seeing donated embryo babies born who are already heirs to their biological parents' estates. :nails: :greedy:
 
I believe the koreans consider a child one year old at the time of birth. Not really relevant, I just like useless facts.
 
I believe the koreans consider a child one year old at the time of birth. Not really relevant, I just like useless facts.

Yes, but technically speaking this is not a direct product of a belief that you 'exist' prior to birth. Rather it's because their conception of age is a measure of how many years you have lived in, not how long you have been in the world.

It gets stranger to a western mind: if you were born the day before the New Year (traditionally lunar, but now solar), you would then be two days old on New Year's Day by western reckoning, but TWO ('years' old) by the Korean system--having 'experienced' a single day of two distinct years.
 
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Woman gives birth to embryo that had been frozen for 24 years. So far apparently so good for the baby.
"An East Tennessee woman delivered the longest-frozen embryo to successfully come to birth, according to the University of Tennessee Preston Medical Library."

The same mother has broken her own record by giving birth to a second daughter whose embryo was frozen for 27 years.
Baby born from 27-year-old frozen embryo breaks record

Molly Everette Gibson may only be less than one month old, but she has already made history.

Weighing 6 pounds, 13 ounces, Molly, who was born on Oct. 26 to parents Tina and Ben Gibson, spent more than 27 years frozen as an embryo before being transferred to her mother's uterus on Feb. 10. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/...-27-year-frozen-embryo-breaks-record-74469304
 
How risky is this?

And why is she doing it this way?

Medical?

Altruistic?

And what kind of woman names her daughter Molly?
 
I would guess she's doing it this way because she's been to hell and back trying to conceive naturally, and insemination with donor embryo is the only possible way for her to have children.

And Molly is an incredibly popular name in the States. Now, if she'd called her son Molly, you would have had a point...
 
The topic of frozen embryos has always been too weird for me. Why do you have to keep them "in stock" for that long. Cryogenics, in general, creep me out.
 
I would guess she's doing it this way because she's been to hell and back trying to conceive naturally, and insemination with donor embryo is the only possible way for her to have children. ...

Just to be clear ... It was Ms. Gibson's own egg fertilized by her husband and then frozen decades earlier (hence frozen 'embryo' rather than frozen 'egg(s)').
Sorry - I was wrong. See later post for correction.


Freezing embryos is most commonly done by couples who wish to 'bank' a fertilized embryo for future development and birth. They may choose to do this for any of a number of reasons such as:

- a wish to defer parenthood until the couple is ready (e.g., economically) to provide a good parenting situation;
- a hedge against the decreasing odds of success (from infertility, miscarriage or genetic disorders) as the mother ages; and / or
- deferral during or in advance of a period of risk for one or both parents (e.g., cancer treatment; military deployment).

I'm not sure which (if any) of these factors were the motivation(s) for the Gibsons.
 
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Just to be clear ... It was Ms. Gibson's own egg fertilized by her husband and then frozen decades earlier (hence frozen 'embryo' rather than frozen 'egg(s)').

Freezing embryos is most commonly done by couples who wish to 'bank' a fertilized embryo for future development and birth. They may choose to do this for any of a number of reasons such as:

- a wish to defer parenthood until the couple is ready (e.g., economically) to provide a good parenting situation;
- a hedge against the decreasing odds of success (from infertility, miscarriage or genetic disorders) as the mother ages; and / or
- deferral during or in advance of a period of risk for one or both parents (e.g., cancer treatment; military deployment).

I'm not sure which (if any) of these factors were the motivation(s) for the Gibsons.

Was it definitely her own embryo? Because she doesn't look much older than 27 and I hesitate to imagine that she met and married her husband as a toddler..
 
I just hope they defrosted it properly before they bunged it in the oven.
 
Was it definitely her own embryo? Because she doesn't look much older than 27 and I hesitate to imagine that she met and married her husband as a toddler..

Sorry - I misread another article I'd found about Ms. Gibson. I've annotated my earlier post to admit the error.

The news items on Ms. Gibson's children don't bother to explain the background / rationale for using cryopreservation. However, the news item concerning her first daughter's birth (see the first post in this thread) says:

Emma was cryopreserved in 1992 before being transferred to Tina’s uterus earlier this year through frozen embryo transfer. Emma was conceived around eighteen months after Tina, 26, was born.

My guess is that Tina (Ms. Gibson) was using an embryo banked by her mother.
 
So that child is also her own sister?
 
So that child is also her own sister?

That, I suppose, is the most likely interpretation. However, it can't be confirmed without some details on the context in which Ms. Gibson undertook the pregnancies.
 
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