A couple is suing the clinic they used to receive IVF treatment after alleging that their baby isn’t actually theirs.
Tiffany Score and her husband Steven Mills filed the lawsuit in Palm Beach County Circuit Court in Florida on January 9, as they intend to take legal action against the Fertility Center of Orlando.
The five-year wait
Score and Mills had their embryos frozen at the Fertility Center of Orlando five years ago, before embarking on IVF treatment with the clinic in March 2025.
Having waited five years to begin the IVF treatment, the couple were delighted when Score became pregnant in March last year.
But now, despite giving birth to ‘a beautiful, healthy female child,’ they are pursuing legal action after alleging that the baby is not genetically theirs.
Same clinic previously faced action in 2024
The Orlando-based fertility clinic came under fire two years ago when Dr. Milton McNichol, who heads the center, was fined $5,000 in May 2024 after a routine inspection by the Florida State Board of Medicine found that equipment didn’t meet ‘performance standards’ and was non-compliant with a risk management program.
In a statement, reported by WESH, the Fertility Center of Orlando said: ”We are 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.
“Multiple entities are involved in this process, and all parties are working diligently to help identify when and where the error may have occurred. Our priority remains transparency and the well-being of the patient and child involved. We will continue to assist in any way that we can regardless of the outcome of the investigation.”
Genetic testing ordered
The lawsuit filed by Score and Mills claims that the Fertility Center of Orlando, in fact, implanted the wrong embryo in Score’s uterus, leading to her giving birth to a baby who did not belong to her or her husband genetically.
The lawsuit, filed in Orange County, Florida, on January 22 and obtained by Fox News Digital, reads: “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.”
Elsewhere in the suit, it is claimed that the couple has asked the clinic to help reunite the child Score gave birth to with her biological parents while also wanting to know what happened with their own embryos.
Score and Mills also want the Fertility Center to pay for the genetic testing of every child born whose parents have had embryos implanted at the same clinic over the last five years.
Score and Mills, a white couple, were stunned when Score gave birth to a baby girl, whom they have since named Shea, who was ‘racially non-Caucasian.’
The couple reached out to the clinic to be connected with the baby’s genetic parents by January 7. The lawsuit states that they had not received a response from the clinic regarding the inquiry.
‘Intensely strong emotional bond’
In the lawsuit, it is stated: “An intensely strong emotional bond was created on the part of Tiffany and Steven with the unborn child Tiffany carried during the nine months of her pregnancy, and despite the certain knowledge that Shea is not their genetically matched child, the emotional bond grows stronger every minute of every day that Shea remains in their care.”
The suit continues: “They would willingly keep her in their care; however, for the sake of both Shea and her genetic parents, they recognize that Shea should legally and morally be united with her genetic parents so long as they are fit, able and willing to take her.”
The clinic’s response
An emergency hearing held on Wednesday saw lawyers on both sides claim that the Fertility Center of Orlando had preliminarily agreed to do genetic testing, according to a report in the Orlando Sentinel.
Francis Pierce III, a lawyer for the clinic, also told the Sentinel that privacy issues with genetically testing other babies born to patients at the clinic is a serious issue.
Pierce told the paper: “Patients would have to agree to be tested,” while adding that attorneys for both the clinic and Score and Mills are working towards a quick settlement.
