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Major update after couple sued IVF clinic after mix-up saw woman give birth to child that wasn't theirs
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A couple who recently welcomed a baby that is not genetically related to them have announced that they have finally identified their daughter’s biological parents.
Tiffany Score and Steven Mills filed a lawsuit against the IVF clinic they used last year after the alleged major mix-up with embryos.
The couple plans to keep the identities of their daughter’s biological parents “confidential” as they “fully intend to cooperate in respecting their privacy.”
According to the lawsuit, Score and Mills went to the Fertility Center of Orlando, Florida, to seek help starting a family.
Eventually, the couple produced and stored three viable embryos. Then, in April last year, Score was implanted with what they believed to be one of their embryos.
It was only when Score gave birth to baby Shea on December 11, that they realised there must have been a mix-up, as the baby did not look like Score or Mills, as they are both white.
While the couple has said they love their daughter "more than words can express," they believe “they have a moral obligation to find her genetic parents”.
In the groundbreaking update, issued in a statement yesterday, Wednesday, April 22, through district attorney, Jack Scarola, Score and Mills said: “The results of testing delivered to us today confirm that our baby's genetic parents have been identified.
The couple added, “This ends one chapter in our heartbreaking journey, but it raises new issues that will have to be resolved.
“Questions about the disposition of our own embryos are still unanswered and are even more unlikely to ever be answered."
Score and Mills still do not know what has happened to the embryos that were painstakingly made using the couple’s own genetics.
Score and Mills concluded their statement with: "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", despite fears their daughter could be removed from their care at any time.
In a statement previously obtained by People Magazine, they said that by taking legal action, they hoped to "begin living more freely and to finally celebrate the one beautiful thing that has come from all of this: our daughter.
“Shea is completely innocent and so undeserving of any of this.”
DA Scarola said: "Remaining questions about the fate of Tiffany and Steven's unaccounted for embryos...are still pending.
“However, we expect that we will now also begin to focus on the need for our clients to be compensated for the expenses they have incurred and the severe emotional trauma that they endured and will continue to experience."