A couple is suing a fertilization clinic after they gave birth to someone else’s child they have since ‘fallen in love with’.
Tiffany Score and Steven Mills had hired IVF Life, which operates as the Fertility Centre of Orlando, to help them conceive.
The couple gave birth to a baby girl in April, but they soon began to suspect the fertility centre in Longwood, Florida, made an error.
The baby had the ‘appearance of a racially non-Caucasian child’ despite both parents being white.
Genetic testing was carried out, which confirmed the baby was not biologically theirs, News6 reports.
The parents contacted the clinic, run by Dr Milton McNichol, multiple times without getting a response, and filed the lawsuit on January 22.
They said: ‘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.’
Their lawyer Jack Scarola said: ‘They have fallen in love with this child.
‘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.’
The parents are also concerned one of the three eggs they fertilized had been implanted into another patient.
They have urged the clinic to inform all other patients who had embryos stored at the facility when Tiffany was implanted with the incorrect one and pay for their genetic testing.
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The Fertility Center of Orlando had shared a statement on their website, saying: ‘[They were] 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.’
But this has since been removed following a case hearing on Wednesday.
Metro has contacted the clinic for comment.
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The clinic have been ordered to submit a thorough plan on how they will rectify the situation.
Dr McNichol was also reprimanded by Florida’s Board of Medicine in May 2024 after an inspection the year before revealed several alleged issues.
This included equipment which ‘did not meet current performance standards’, not complying with a risk-management agenda, and missing medication.
He was fined $5,000, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
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