Couple welcomes genetically unrelated baby girl, sues fertility clinic over embryo mix-up 

A Florida couple is suing a fertility clinic after the wife gave birth to a child who isn’t even biologically related to them.  

The anonymous parents – named John and Jane Doe in the complaint, but later identified as Tiffany Score and Steven Mills, according to the Orlando Sentinel – stored three “viable embryos” at Orlando Fertility Clinic IVF Life, Inc. in 2020. The couple created the embryos through in vitro fertilization, a laboratory process that fertilizes a woman’s egg outside of her womb.  

In April 2025, the clinic’s head reproductive endocrinologist Dr. Milton McNichol implanted an embryo in Score’s uterus, believing it to be the genetic product of the couple, according to the complaint filed Jan. 22. Score carried the baby to term and delivered a girl Dec. 11.  

When the Caucasian couple observed the obviously non-Caucasian traits of their baby girl, they performed genetic testing and found the newborn bore no biological relation to the parents, according to the complaint.  

Through the nine months of pregnancy, delivery and now rearing, the couple has formed “an intensely strong emotional bond” with “Baby Doe,” as named in the complaint. 

“Despite the certain knowledge that Baby Doe is not their genetically matched child, the emotional bond grows stronger every minute of every day that Baby Doe remains in their care,” the complaint states. 

“They have fallen in love with this child,” John Scarola, the couple’s attorney, told the Orlando Sentinel. 

The couple say they “would willingly keep her in their care,” but are concerned for both the child and her biological parents. 

“For the sake of both Baby Doe and her genetic parents, they recognize that Baby Doe should legally and morally be united with her genetic parents so long as they are fit, able and willing to take her,” the complaint says. 

Additionally, the couple is demanding answers regarding the “disposition of their own embryos” amid their “ever-increasing mental anguish of not knowing whether a child or children belonging to them are in someone else’s care,” the complaint explains. 

The lawsuit demands the clinic inform all patients from 2020 onward of the situation by providing a copy of said complaint, cover expenses of any genetic testing those couples undertake to determine the biological heritage of their children, and notify the Does of the “disposition of their embryos.”  

Before filing the lawsuit, Scarola sent a letter to the clinic Jan. 5, requesting “immediate attention” to the concerns “of utmost urgency” and a response by Jan. 7, according to the complaint. 

At an emergency hearing before Orange County Circuit Court Judge Margaret Schreiber, the clinic agreed preliminarily to cover the genetic testing on couples who are willing, The Orlando Sentinel reported.  

Before the hearing, the clinic posted a notice on its website informing viewers it is “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 that notice disappeared after the hearing, according to The Orlando Sentinel.  

Doe’s case is not the first trouble to face McNichol, the clinic’s endocrinologist, who owed $5,000 in fines from Florida’s Board of Medicine’s disciplinary action in 2024, according to the Orlando Sentinel. After a “routine inspection” of the clinic in June 2023, state officials found equipment that failed to meet “performance standards,” missing medication and “non-compliance with a risk management program,” the outlet reports.  

In this case, the investigation must begin with records from 2020 because the mix-up could have happened when the couple stored their embryos or before the implantation in 2025, Mara Hatfield, another of the couple’s attorneys, explained.  

The judge warned the lack of legal precedent makes this case particularly concerning and tricky.  

“There’s not a lot of Florida law for you all to reach a resolution that will provide the answers that the plaintiffs in this case are seeking, and the protections that the defendants are wanting to ensure remain in place for their clients,” she said.