Couple Suing Fertility Clinic Over IVF Mix-Up Finally ID Baby’s Biological Parents

The couple who sued their IVF clinic for implanting the wrong embryo has shared an update about their baby’s biological parents.

In January, Tiffany Score and Steven Mills filed a lawsuit against the Fertility Center of Orlando, which recently announced it would be closing its doors.

The couple reportedly produced and stored three viable embryos at the IVF clinic. On December 11, 2025, they welcomed a healthy girl named Shea.

An IVF mix-up turned Tiffany Score and Steven Mills’ dream into a legal nightmare

Image credits: WESH

But the parents realized there had been a mix-up when Shea “displayed the physical appearance of a racially non-caucasian child” despite them being caucasian, their lawsuit stated.

Score and Mills said they love their 4-month-old daughter “more than words can express,” but still felt they had “a moral obligation to find her genetic parents.”

In a statement shared with People magazine on Wednesday (April 22), the couple confirmed that they have finally found Shea’s biological parents.

Image credits: WESH

“The results of testing delivered to us today confirm that our baby’s genetic parents have been identified,” they said.

Score and Mills plan to keep the identity of their baby’s biological parents “confidential,” noting that they “fully intend to cooperate in respecting their privacy.”

Identifying Shea’s genetic parents, they said, reignites concerns regarding what the Fertility Center of Orlando did with their own genetic material.

“This ends one chapter in our heartbreaking journey, but it raises new issues that will have to be resolved,” said Score and Mills. “In addition, questions about the disposition of our own embryos are still unanswered and are even more unlikely to ever be answered.”

After welcoming their baby girl, Shea, Score and Mills confirmed that she wasn’t biologically theirs and sued their IVF clinic

Image credits: WFTV Channel 9

Their attorney, Jack Scarola, told People that “remaining questions about the fate of Tiffany and Steven’s unaccounted for embryos…are still pending.”

According to the lawyer, the couple hopes that the legal proceeding provides those answers and also offers compensation for “the expenses they have incurred and the severe emotional trauma that they endured and will continue to experience.”

While the couple had expressed fear about the possibility of Shea’s biological parents taking her from them, Scarola confirmed that the genetic parents have not made that demand.

Image credits: Pixabay/SeppH (not the actual photo)

With their lawsuit against the fertility clinic, Score and Mills hope to “begin living more freely and to finally celebrate the one beautiful thing that has come from all of this: our daughter.”

The proud parents said their baby girl “is completely innocent and so undeserving” of the clinic’s alleged medical error.

“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,” Score and Mills added of Shea.

The couple is still waiting for answers regarding the fate of their embryos

Image credits: WESH

After Shea was born, the couple turned to DNA testing and reportedly confirmed that she was not biologically related to either of them.

“While we are beyond grateful to have her in our lives and love her immeasurably (…) we are heartbroken, devastated, and confused,” the parents stated in January after filing their lawsuit.

In their statement, Score and Mills added that they decided to speak out partly to prevent “harmful rumors or misinformation” regarding the pregnancy.

Image credits: WESH

“Of equal concern to the Plaintiffs is the obvious possibility that someone else was implanted with one or more of their embryos and is pregnant with or has been pregnant with and is presently parenting one or more of their children,” reads the lawsuit, as per WFLA.

Score and Mills are asking that the IVF clinic provide free genetic testing for all its patients from the last five years and inform them of any discrepancies found during testing.

The lawsuit also requests that the Longwood-based clinic immediately notify all patients who had embryos in storage, before Score’s implantation, of the allegations in the complaint.

Score and Mills are calling on the IVF clinic to offer free genetic testing to all patients from the past five years

Image credits: WESH

In addition to the clinic, Dr. Milton McNichol, its founder and head reproductive endocrinologist, is also named as a defendant in the case.

The Fertility Center of Orlando has never denied the possibility of an error.

In a statement in January, 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.”

The center explained that it was working to identify when and where the error may have occurred and that it was actively cooperating with the ongoing investigation.

Image credits: WESH

This month, the Fertility Center of Orlando announced that it would be closing and that another clinic would be opening in the same facility. The announcement on the clinic’s website did not specify why it was closing or whether Dr. Milton McNichol would continue to work there.

The lawsuits follow financial troubles for the IVF clinic, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2024, as per NBC News.

In the United States, approximately 100,000 babies are born each year through IVF

Image credits: Nightline

The center was reportedly cited for violations by the Florida Department of Health in 2023 after a routine inspection revealed several issues, including equipment not meeting up-to-date performance standards and the facility lacking lidocaine, a medication that can be used to treat cardiac arrest. 

In the United States, about 100,000 babies are born annually through IVF (in vitro fertilization) technology; yet, the industry remains largely unregulated in the country, with no reliable databases that track errors at national IVF clinics available for potential patients.

Poll Question

Total votes ·

Thanks! Check out the results:

Total votes ·

Newsletter

Subscribe to Access
Exclusive Polls

Subscribe

By entering your email and clicking Subscribe, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our Privacy Policy.

Thank you! You've successfully subscribed to newsletters!

Follow us on Flipboard.com/@boredpanda!