Abroad
US couple given wrong embryo in IVF clinic mix-up, decide to keep baby
The biological parents still "intend to remain a part of this child’s life".
June 23, 2026, 06:57 PM
Photo from Tiff Score/Facebook
A couple in the United States, who discovered they had been implanted with the wrong embryo, will retain permanent custody of the child, despite having no biological relation to her.
Steven Mills and Tiffany Score reached a custody agreement with the child’s biological parents in a court filing via their lawsuit against a Florida fertility clinic, NBC reported.
An attorney representing the biological parents stated that they "intend to remain a part of this child’s life, while recognising the impossible situation that both families have been placed in, through no fault of their own".
The mix-up
Mills and Score, who are both white, first suspected a mix-up after their daughter, Shea, was born in December 2025.
According to a lawsuit seen by NBC, the couple noticed that their newborn "displayed the physical appearance of a racially non-Caucasian child".
Genetic testing conducted in January 2026 confirmed that the baby was 100 per cent South Asian, proving she was not biologically related to either Mills or Score.
The Florida fertility center later admitted that Score had been implanted with another couple’s embryo via in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), rather than one created using her own egg and Mills' sperm, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
The mix-up also left the fate of the couple's own embryos up in the air.
In 2020, the couple had stored three embryos at the clinic.
According to Orlando Sentinel, one resulted in a miscarriage and one remains in storage.
However, the third embryo is still unaccounted for.
As part of their lawsuit, Mills and Score sought to identify Shea's biological parents and demanded the clinic pay for genetic testing for other patients' children to check for further mix-ups.
Choosing to keep Shea
In an amended January complaint, Mills and Score had formed an "intensely strong emotional bond" with Shea and wanted to keep her in their care, but also recognised that she should be "legally and morally united with her genetic parents", The Guardian reported.
According to a "mutually devised custody agreement" filed in court, the couple will "continue as the permanent custodial parents of their daughter", the couple's attorney said in a court document seen by the Orlando Sentinel.
The details of the custody agreement will remain private, according to a court filing seen by The Guardian.
Since the incident, the fertility center announced on its website that it would no longer operate after May 20.
“Questions about the disposition of our own embryos are still unanswered and are even more unlikely to ever be answered,” the couple said in a statement obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.
“Only one thing is as absolutely certain as it was on the day our daughter was born – we will love and be this child’s parents forever.”
