Marking another scientific miracle, a baby girl was born from an embryo that was frozen 27 years ago. According to Independent, Tennessee couple Tina and Benjamin Gibson, witnessed the birth of their baby girl Molly Everette three decades after her embryo was frozen on October 14, 1992. Molly’s birth has now set the record for being the longest frozen embryo to have ever been brought to life.
The process began on February 12 this year, when the frozen embryo was transferred inside Tina’s womb. The whole procedure was conducted by the National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC), which helps families have children through in-vitro fertilization. In 2017, Tina had given birth to her elder daughter Emma, who was along with Molly was also frozen in 1992. A report by the Independent reveals that both the sisters were chosen from a range of donor profiles and are genetic siblings.
“We’re over the moon,” Tina said, according to a report in BBC. “I still get choked up.”
“If you would have asked me five years ago if I would have not just one girl, but two, I would have said you were crazy,” she said.
The family struggled with infertility for nearly five years before Ms Gibson’s parents saw a story about embryo adoption on a local news station.
“That’s the only reason that we share our story. If my parents hadn’t seen this on the news then we wouldn’t be here,” Tina, 29, said. “I feel like it should come full-circle.”
Tina, an elementary school teacher and her husband, a 36-year-old cyber security analyst, connected with the National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC), a Christian non-profit in Knoxville that stores frozen embryos that in vitro fertilisation patients decided not to use and chose to donate instead.
Families like the Gibsons can then adopt one of the unused embryos and give birth to a child that is not genetically related to them. There are an estimated one million frozen human embryos stored in the US right now, according to the NEDC.
