A human embryo.
Photo dated November 30, 2000 at CECOS (Center for the Study and Conservation of Human Sperm).
-
MARCEL MOCHET / AFP
Little Molly Gibson was born in Tennessee (United States) on October 20, twenty-seven years after the freezing of the embryo from which she came.
In October 1992, a couple donated several eggs that had been frozen.
One of them was implanted last February in the uterus of Tina Gibson, Molly's mother.
The latter was 2 years old when the donor embryos were removed and frozen.
Molly's birth sets a world record for how long an embryo can be stored by freezing before birth,
Martha Earl
told The
New York Times
.
The birth of Molly Gibson in October using an embryo from 1992 broke a record for the longest-frozen embryo to result in a live birth.https: //t.co/wZOvFanZ6U
- The New York Times (@nytimes) December 4, 2020
A family record
The director of the University of Tennessee medical library consulted the science records.
She says she did not find any article there mentioning a freezing of more than 20 years.
The previous record, set in 2017, already belonged to the Gibson family.
Emma, Molly's older sister, was indeed born after the implantation of an embryo from the same donors.
The birth of Molly shows that freezing storage is not limited in time and does not affect the quality of the eggs.
"If the embryo supports thawing properly, it normally has the same chance [of life] as an embryo which has just been created", estimates the director of the establishment where the implantations were carried out.
The Gibsons opted for this method after trying to adopt a child for five years.
The father of the family has cystic fibrosis and his wife carries the genes for the disease.
The couple feared infecting the fetus in the event of in vitro fertilization.
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