A Florida couple who received the wrong embryo during IVF will retain permanent custody of the child, Shea, following a custody agreement with the biological parents. The Fertility Center of Orlando, allegedly responsible for the mix-up, has since ceased operations.
This case highlights the profound ethical and legal complexities arising from human error in fertility treatments, impacting family structures and the operations of fertility clinics.
A Florida couple who received the wrong embryo during in-vitro fertilization will retain permanent custody of the child born from that embryo. Steven Mills and Tiffany Score, both Caucasian, discovered the error after their daughter, Shea, appeared to be of a different race. Subsequent genetic testing confirmed Shea was not biologically related to them.
The couple reached a custody agreement with Shea's biological parents, identified anonymously as Patient 004, in a court filing last week. The details of this agreement remain private.
Mills and Score had enlisted the services of the Fertility Center of Orlando for IVF. Following the controversy, the clinic shuttered its operations on May 20. The Fertility Center of Orlando also faces unrelated legal issues, including accusations of medical malpractice and negligence in a 2024 surrogate pregnancy case where the infant died shortly after birth.
In a letter to the clinic, one of the couple's attorneys, Jack Scarola, noted that without the racial disparity, the error might have gone undiscovered for years. The couple stated their intention to love and parent Shea forever, while acknowledging her need to be legally and morally united with her genetic parents.