A long time coming
Newborn twins, born in Oregon three weeks ago, were produced from what are believed to be the longest-frozen embryos ever.
The embryos, which produced twins Lydia and Timothy Ridgeway on Halloween, were frozen 30 years ago on April 22, 1992.
The embryos were donated but had been unused all those years. The couple who decided to have them implanted have four biological children but “‘specifically requested the embryos that have been waiting for the longest. They actually felt called to specifically say we want the embryos that everyone else has taken a pass on,’ Dr. John David Gordon, medical director at NEDC, told WATE.”
Stories concerning twins (identical most of all, unlike Lydia and Timothy) are always of interest to anyone who follows the endless (and endlessly wearisome, albeit important) debates over nature/nurture. At this moment of cultural madness surrounding “trans hysteria” and “radical gender ideology”, one is reminded of perhaps the finest book in this field, Colapinto’s As Nature Made Him, published two decades ago and recounting the sad tale of (twin) David Reimer, whose life was destroyed by John Money, the radical professor (Johns Hopkins) whose destructive theories caused the young Canadian boy unimaginable suffering resulting finally in his suicide (at 38).
I don’t believe in IVF, but good for that couple for making something good come of it!
neo’s post title triggered the spark of a few synapses:
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It’s been a long time comin’
It’s goin’ to be a long time gone.
Appears to be a long time,
Yes, a long, long, log time
Before the dawn.
–“Crosby,. Still & Nash”, Long Time Gone (2005 Remaster)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS3l_TwPNRY
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I didn’t realize Crosby had written that song the night RFK was assassinated in 1968:
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“It was written the night Bobby Kennedy was killed,” Crosby wrote in the liner notes for CSN’s 1991 box set. “I believed in him because he said he wanted to make some positive changes in America, and he hadn’t been bought and sold like Johnson and Nixon—cats who made their deals years ago with the special interests in this country in order to gain power. I thought Bobby, like his brother, was a leader who had not made those deals. I was already angry about Jack Kennedy getting killed and it boiled over into this song when they got his brother, too.”
https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-song-lyrics-long-time-gone-by-crosby-stills-and-nash/
@ j e:
I have a set of boy / girl twins and I’ve often commented that any sane person who watched their upbringing would be thoroughly absolved of any sort of “blank slate” craziness that’s all the rage nowadays.
I got to experience first hand how my son gravitated on his own to boy things. My daughter; girl things. For all their alikeness, they are two different human beings. That was nature. Common sense stuff, you’d think.
Wonderful story. Just hope the embryos didn’t degrade over the decades. They are special children.
The Kenedeys, pure as driven snow (not). The 60’s and 70’s were a blot in so many ways.
huxley:
I was thinking of a song too, but a very gloomy one by Bob Dylan. Here’s Odetta singing it.
YAY LYDIA AND TIMOTHY! MAY THEY PROSPER! HUZZAH!
It’s a wonderful story, but shouldn’t the children’s names have been kept private?
but shouldn’t the children’s names have been kept private?
Complain to the parents.
I didn’t have a point of view on IVF before, but for couples with a medical issue it makes the difference between having children or not. A young lady relative’s husband had a problem with very low sperm counts, a birth defect. Only through IVF have they been able to conceive, and now on their second try, it appears to have taken. Can’t be against that.
I was thinking of a song too, but a very gloomy one by Bob Dylan.
neo:
I figured you had some song in mind, though not the one by Crosby.
I had never run across that Dylan song before. It’s not on his early albums. I see that it has since been offered on one of his “bootleg” collections, as well as on the Odetta link you provided.
–Bob Dylan, “Long Time Gone (Witmark Demo – 1963)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwwqrAGGit8
https://genius.com/Bob-dylan-long-time-gone-lyrics
I’m sure Crosby knew the Dylan song.
I’m not in favor. This is an experiment with the lives of two new people.
Of course any conception is like that but 30 year old embryos seems far too risky.
Joseph –
Unfortunately it is possible for a sizable cohort of women to think”See, I can put off having kids until I get that corner office.” They will pass by this is a once in a bazillion chance. Women’s body’s seem to be engineered to, optimally, have kids between 16 and 23.
Richard Cook:
When people go for help at infertility clinics, it is found that half of the causes are in the woman and half in the men. Also, female fertility doesn’t really begin to decline ,significantly till 30 and especially after 35.
Fertility aside, who wants to be a first time mom at 40? Babies are EXHAUSTING!
Well, lots of women, apparently. Late motherhood is better than no motherhood at all. Tru dat.
I had my first at 36 and my second a few months shy of 39. Shoulda had them at 31 and 36, max, which I was perfectly situated to do. Not to mention, having my kids turned me conservative. Would have done me good to face reality 5 years sooner.
There is no comparison in energy level between the late 20’s and the late 30’s, and that self imposed delay is really hitting home now that I have my first grandchild*. As fit and active as my husband and I are, the fact is we will be approaching 90 when the first* (!) one goes off to college. I tell every young lady I know to stop kidding themselves, find a good man, and get started on their family by 30.
*May there be many more!