蜜芽传媒

Human embryos, frozen over three decades ago, have finally been born in the US. It is believed to be a new record for the longest-frozen embryos ever to result in a successful live birth.

The embryos had originally been created for an anonymous married couple using In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) techniques 30 years ago. That couple later decided to donate them and now Lydia and Timothy have been born to the Ridgeway family.

Philip was only five years old when his children鈥檚 embryos were frozen, which he says is 鈥渕ind boggling鈥�.

Newsday asked Dr Zeynep Gurtin, of the Institute for Women鈥檚 Health at University College London to unravel some of the social and ethical issues of embryo freezing.

鈥淲e now know lots of children who are born of donor sperm or donor eggs or donor embryos are actually interested in finding out about their genetic origins when they are a little older鈥� to meet their genetic parents. When you have such a huge time gap between when the embryos had been frozen and when they were born - the genetic father is in his 80s now - then when the children hit adulthood 鈥�it鈥檚 likely that he may no longer be alive.鈥�

(Pic: A handout photo made available by the National Embryo Donation Center shows newborn twins Lydia and Timothy Ridgeway; Credit: EPA)

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