A Florida couple has confirmed they have identified the biological parents of the baby girl they carried and delivered, who is not genetically related to either of them due to an embryo mix-up at a closing Orlando-area fertility clinic.
Tiffany Score and Steven Mills, both Caucasian, underwent IVF at the Fertility Center of Orlando in Longwood, Florida, in 2020. They created and stored three viable embryos.
In April of last year, one embryo was implanted in Score’s uterus.
On December 11, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl, whom they named Shea.
Immediately, the couple noticed Shea displayed the physical appearance of a racially non-Caucasian child.
Genetic testing later confirmed that Shea has zero biological connection to Score or Mills.
DNA results showed she is 100% South Asian, according to a report from NBC News.
On Wednesday, the couple announced through their attorneys that genetic testing has now definitively identified Shea’s biological parents, a South Asian couple whose identities they are keeping confidential out of respect for their privacy.
As of now, the biological parents have made no request for custody, and Shea is now four months old.
In a joint statement to NBC, Score and Mills said:
“The results of testing delivered to us today confirm that our baby’s genetic parents have been identified… This ends one chapter in our heartbreaking journey, but it raises new issues that will have to be resolved. In addition, questions about the disposition of our own embryos are still unanswered and are even more unlikely to ever be answered.
Only one thing is as absolutely certain today as it was on the day our daughter was born — we will love and will be this child’s parents forever.”
Their attorney, Jack Scarola, added that the couple has an “intensely strong emotional bond” with Shea and plans to raise her as their own while acknowledging she “should legally and morally be united with her genetic parents” if they are fit, able, and willing.
The couple filed a lawsuit in January against the Fertility Center of Orlando and its head reproductive endocrinologist, Dr. Milton McNichol.
The lawsuit alleges gross negligence in the implantation of another patient’s embryo instead of one of the couple’s own stored embryos.
The clinic has already announced it will permanently close by May 20, citing “thoughtful consideration.”
Attorney Scarola noted that the lawsuit will remain open to address the fate of the couple’s unaccounted-for embryos, as well as compensation for the family’s massive expenses and “severe emotional trauma.”
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