Couple sue IVF clinic after giving birth to ‘non-Caucasian child’
· Yahoo NewsA couple in the United States are suing a fertility clinic after they gave birth to a baby with the “appearance of a racially non-Caucasian child”.
Tiffany Score and Steven Mills conceived through in vitro fertilisation (IVF), but later discovered that the child was not biologically theirs.
They only realised when the baby was born with a different ethnicity to her parents, who are both white.
Genetic testing then confirmed that the baby girl was not genetically related to them.
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The pair suspect that IVF Life – which operates as the Fertility Centre of Orlando in Longwood, Florida – mistakenly implanted the wrong embryo in Ms Score.
They filed the lawsuit on Jan 22 after allegedly making multiple attempts to contact the clinic without receiving a response.
Ms Score and Mr Mills said that they “love our little girl” and would like to raise her as their own if allowed.
“We would hope to be able to continue to raise her ourselves with confidence that she won’t be taken away from us,” they said in a statement to News6.
“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.”
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Ms Score and Mr Mills also fear that one of the three embryos they had frozen at the clinic may have been mistakenly implanted into another patient, potentially meaning someone else could be pregnant with or raising their biological child.
The lawsuit asks that the clinic account for the couple’s remaining embryos.
The pair have requested that the clinic share all information relating to other patients who also had embryos stored at the facility during the year Score gave birth to the child.
They also want IVF Life to fund the genetic testing of each child born following the clinic’s work over the past five years.
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The lawsuit names IVF Life LLC and Dr Milton McNichol, who operates the clinic, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
Jack Scarola, one of the couple’s lawyers, told the newspaper that the couple “have fallen in love with this child”.
He added: “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 family spokesman said that an investigation into the situation is ongoing.
“Based upon leads discovered to date, and despite the lack of help or cooperation from the clinic, there is hope that we will be able to introduce our daughter to her genetic parents and to find our own genetic child soon,” they told the Daily Mail.
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The Telegraph has contacted the Fertility Centre for comment.
The facility previously shared a statement seemingly referring to Ms Score and Mr Mills’ concerns, but it was taken down after a court hearing on Wednesday.
According to reports, it said the clinic 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”.
Dr McNichol was reprimanded by Florida’s Board of Medicine in May 2024 following an inspection of the clinic in June 2023 that uncovered multiple violations.
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Public records show that the facility did not have a correct list of staff who worked there on its register while equipment “did not meet current performance standards”. There was also a failure to follow a risk‑management plan and missing medications.
He was fined $5,000 for the infractions.