Tina Gibson, 26, from Tennessee in the US has reportedly given birth to the oldest frozen embryo ever to come to term.
When Tina and her husband Benjamin couldn’t fall pregnant naturally, they decided to adopt a frozen embryo in March this year.
On November 25, baby Emma was born. She measured 20 inches long and weighed just under three kilograms, according to a statement from the National Embryo Donation Center in Knoxville.
Amazingly, the embryo that became Emma was conceived in 1992 – only a year after Tina herself was born in 1991.
The embryo was 24 years old at the time it was thawed and transferred in March.
Emma’s father Benjamin described his newborn as a “sweet miracle”.
“I think she looks pretty perfect to have been frozen all those years ago.”
Lab director Carol Sommerfelt said the birth of Emma was “deeply moving and highly rewarding”.
“I will always remember what the Gibsons said when presented with the picture of their embryos at the time of transfer,” Sommerfelt is quoted in the press release. “They said: ‘These embryos could have been my best friends’, as Tina herself was only 25 at the time of transfer.”
Tina and Benjamin's story was made possible through embryo donation - something rarely talked about in the discussion of IVF in Australia.
Why? Because it's tricky. Embryos are not just egg or sperm, they are the biological children of the couple that artificially conceived them and they are the siblings of any children that couple might have.
Parents with embryos leftover from IVF cycles have three choices, Associate Editor Clara Pirani wrote for The Australian: "let them 'succumb'; donate them to research; or donate them to someone else".
Usually a decisive person, Pirani said "the responsibility of this choice has me stuck on pause".
Last month we heard the story of Natalie Parker, a woman who chose to donate her embryos thinking she would know her genetic children as they grew up.
Instead, the recipient allegedly lied to Parker and the IVF clinic, saying she never carried the embryo to term, only for Parker to discover the baby-that-was-her-embryo in a Facebook photograph months later.
"I feel like I've been used," Parker told Nine's 60 Minutes in November this year.
Still, an excess of embryos represent a problem in Australia that no one wants to address.
According to research out of the University of Technology in Sydney, as written up by Jenni Millbank for The Conversation, there are more than 120,000 leftover embryos - also referred to as 'snowflakes' - currently in Australia.
It's a heartbreaking gap, considering statistics from the Embryo Donation Network, reported by News Corp, that show: for every 20 couples hoping for embryos in Australia, only one will receive them.
As well as this, in the last 10 years, the state of Victoria has seen more that 20,000 embryos discarded simply because the legal storage limits had been reached.
Now, with Tina and Benjamin Gibson's story - that embryos which have been frozen for 24 years can be taken to full, healthy term - this waste seems even more excessive.
Caroline Overington changed Oprah’s life. Post continues below.
Perhaps, clearer transparency around embryo donation might make the decision more attractive to potential donors such as Pirani.
Current laws in Australia declare embryo donation cannot be commercial; couples considering donation must undergo counselling; and anonymous donation is prohibited because the child has a right to know.
There is no legislation, however, around the biological parents' right to know. According to a 2011 study published in the International Journal of Fertility & Sterility, embryo recipients are 'encouraged' to disclose to their children that they were donor-conceived, but there is no system to ensure this happens.
Giving away embryos will never be easy. There will be good news stories, like that of Tina and Benjamin, and bad news stories, like Natalie Parker's. But some further clarity and perhaps empathy, too, is likely needed - particularly when there are 120,000 of them sitting in laboratory shelves.
Top Comments
Fascinating story! After a lengthy process, my wife and I have finally been able to donate our 8 embryos (frozen in 2015). Initially we were a little unsure about whether to donate, but as we have friends who have major fertility problems, we soon realised that donating them would be an amazing gift to those individuals and couples. We are so stoked that 2018 could be the year that some of those little guys are born into the world!! If they choose to find us in 18 years (and meet their biological sister), that's great, but if we never meet them, we at least know they have been raised by people who will love them very much. I know it's a challenging idea for many but i'd 100% recommend donating your embryos if you have that choice.
I think embryo donation represents an area where the law is failing to keep up and it desperately needs to. To be honest, I think there are going to be a lot of kids down the line who are angry and confused about their origins - imagine finding out you were a donated embryo and that it was just chance and the doctor's decision that your particular embryo wasn't used by your biological parents and was instead leftover and eventually donated.
To me, the tone of this article talking about unused embryos as waste and suggesting that it's unfair to childless parents to have them unused reminds me of the attitudes in place when young unmarried mothers were forced to give up their babies at birth so that childless couples could adopt them. It was very much the same attitude of finding the supply of babies to meet the demands of childless couples and not at all about the interests of the babies or their birth families.