By: Don Caldwell
Imagine having a child who is older than you at birth…
Excerpts italicized:
Cryopreservation was once the domain of sci-fi novels and B-rate movies. (Think Encino Man.) But it’s increasingly real, as the recent birth of a healthy boy from a frozen embryo created 20 years earlier shows.
The birth, which is reported in a study in the online edition of the journal Fertility and Sterility, sets a record. Until now, no embryo frozen for this long has resulted in a live birth.
The 42-year-old mother of the boy, who is not named in the study, began trying to get pregnant using IVF ten years ago. At the time, she and her husband received embryos from a heterosexual couple who had themselves undergone IVF.
That couple had anonymously donated their leftover embryos after the woman successfully gave birth. Thing was, they did so in 1990 – meaning that the boy just born to the woman in the study has a sibling out there somewhere who was conceived at the same time but is 20 years older.
At what point should we stop playing “God”, assuming we should ever play “God” at all?
Is this not a further illustration of how tough God has made life? But is there also a danger of damage to the cells over time? Will the child be able to grow up without defects?
How do you tell this child about where he came from after he is born?
(ORIGINAL LINK) Baby Born From 20-Year-Old Frozen Embryo | Popular Science
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