World’s Oldest Baby
Imagine you have graduated from college and begun your first job. You may be in your mid-twenties and meet the person you want to spend your life with. The move to adulthood may be a catalyst for your self-reflection. Although everyone considers you a twenty-something, you are really a fifty-something. You are not a member of your generation but of one in the future. When you finally learn how you came into this world, you are the innocent victim of others’ selfish decisions and will have to live with them for your entire life.
This horrific, imaginative story, far from fantasy, is the reality of a person who was born through the technology of in vitro fertilization. The MIT Technical Review recently published a story about the oldest baby born on July 26, 2025. The horrific story of manipulation started almost 31 years ago.
In 1994, Linda Archerd, now 62, was having difficulty bringing a child to term. After six miscarriages, Archerd decided to employ IVF, which produced for her a baby girl. During the process, Archerd had four eggs fertilized, and one was inserted into her uterus, resulting in the birth of her daughter. Immediately, people were pleased because Archerd finally had the child she hoped for. However, the birth of her daughter was only the beginning, and it would take years to unravel the destruction to come.
Archerd’s story is from a fairy tale because she intended to implant the other embryos later and even called them her “three little hopes.” Her husband at the time did not agree to additional implantations, and soon they divorced. Archerd was granted custody of the three unborn embryos, thinking she would go through an IVF procedure with a new partner. Neither of her plans came to fruition.
Fast-forward thirty-one years. Archerd, now long past her time to carry a child, decided she wanted to allow another couple to use her embryos and, through IVF, bring the embryos to term. A couple from Ohio, Linda and Tim Pierce, met the requirements. The three embryos were thawed. One of them stopped growing and died, and the other two were transferred to the surrogate’s uterus. Another embryo perished, and only one developed into a fetus and was born on July 26, 2025, at 31 years, the oldest known baby. Typically, many embryos must die for one to live.
There is so much wrong with this tragic situation. From beginning to end, the moral laws of God have been ignored. Many would herald the birth of the 31-year-old baby as morally justifiable because the frozen embryo held in limbo has a chance to live rather than be suspended in a frozen prison. Trying to add the legitimacy of the embryo adoption, a Christian organization called Snowflake was instrumental in this embryo adoption.
It matters little whether Snowflake calls itself a Christian organization; its work, far from being benevolent, is immoral. Granted, the frozen embryos problem is a big one, but the answer does not lie in implanting these children in surrogate mothers. The dignity of human life demands that these children not be used or trafficked by individuals who see them as only material necessary for a birth. Pope Francis spoke out about this practice in this way: “In this regard, I deem deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs. A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract.”
Nor can we be blind to the actual events of harm which befell some of the embryos. Two of the three children died because of the so-called adoption procedure. Those two were as human as you and I are, and are the victims of immoral decisions made 31 years ago and continued until their deaths.
The ripple effect of the selfish decision to freeze human beings and consider them nothing more than an opportunity for a couple to have their desires filled continues to this day and already has repercussions. The first baby girl born to Archerd via IVF is now a 31-year-old woman. We don’t know who she is, but the emotional and psychological toll it will take on her is undeniable. She had the right to be born through the union of her father and mother; however, she was not afforded that respect. Now she has to process what it is like to have her brother 31 years younger than she is. Both she and her brother had already suffered greatly.
Then what about the oldest baby? When he grows up, he is told that he needs to add 31 years to the number of years he is purported to be. He is the same age and generation as his adopted parents. Let that sink in for a moment. The immense psychological and emotional stress will be enormous. Instead of being in one generation, he has been placed in another. What is horrific is that we all know he will not be spared from such trauma. Pray for him.
The IVF revolution is an evil one, and young couples, along with older people, should recognize that playing God with reproduction leads to destruction, of those living and those whose lives were given up for a selfish desire of wanting a child at all costs. This story highlights the evil of playing God and how that decision causes the evil to continue, even after 31 years. Don’t be fooled; IVF is not of God, but rather human beings playing God and manipulating the plan of creation.
We must start teaching that children are a gift from God and not a right. They are not animals but human beings with an eternal soul. Emphatically, manipulating so precious a creature is immoral and should be avoided, no matter the circumstances.
If you would like more information on the evils of IVF, please read our previous post here.