Florida couple sue fertility clinic after having non-biologically related baby
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Ms Tiffany Score and Mr Steven Mills have filed a lawsuit against a fertility clinic after discovering that the baby they welcomed through IVF is not biologically related to either of them.
PHOTO: ZAZ.BR/X
A Florida couple are suing a fertility clinic after having a baby who is not biologically related to them.
According to media reports, Ms Tiffany Score and Mr Steven Mills had a baby girl on Dec 11, 2025, through in-vitro fertilisation, but later realised the infant appeared “racially non-Caucasian”.
As both Ms Score and Mr Mills are Caucasian, they ordered genetic testing, which later proved that the baby was not biologically related to them.
The couple is alleging that Orlando fertility clinic IVF Life and its head reproductive endocrinologist Milton McNichol implanted the wrong embryo into Ms Score.
The couple had stored three viable embryos at the clinic in 2020, reported the New York Post.
They filed the lawsuit on Jan 22 after allegedly contacting the clinic for answers but to no avail.
The couple is concerned Ms Score’s own embryos have been implanted into someone else and have asked the clinic to account for her three embryos, according to Fox News.
They also want IVF Life to fund the genetic testing of each child born following the clinic’s work over the past five years.
The lawsuit said the couple have formed “an intensely strong emotional bond” that “grows stronger every minute of every day that (the baby) remains in their care”, reported Fox.
In a statement to Florida news channel News6, Ms Score and Mr Mills said that they “love our little girl” and would like to raise her as their own if allowed.
The statement added: “We would hope to be able to continue to raise her ourselves with confidence that she won’t be taken away from us.
“At the same time, we are aware that we have a moral obligation to find and notify her biological parents, as it is in her best interest that her genetic parents are provided the option to raise her as their own.”
One of the couple’s lawyers, Mr Jack Scarola, told the Orlando Sentinel: “They would be thrilled in the knowledge that they could raise this child.
“But their concern is that this is someone else’s child, and someone could show up at any time and claim the baby and take that baby away from them.”
A lawyer for the clinic, Mr Francis Pierce, also told the Sentinel that there are privacy issues with genetically testing other babies born to patients at the clinic.
He added that attorneys on both sides are working for a quick settlement.
In a post that has since been removed from the clinic’s website, the clinic said it was “actively cooperating with an investigation to support one of our patients in determining the source of an error that resulted in the birth of a child who is not genetically related to them”, according to the Sentinel.
