Tiffany Score and Steven Mills with their baby during a court hearing Wednesday (Orange County Circuit Court via the Orlando Sentinel).
A Florida couple has filed a lawsuit against an Orlando fertility clinic, claiming a possible mix-up of embryos resulted in the birth of a baby girl who is not biologically theirs.
Filed in Orange County Circuit Court, the lawsuit targets IVF Life, Inc., and its leading reproductive endocrinologist, Dr. Milton McNichol. While the legal documents refer to the couple as John and Jane Doe and their child as Baby Doe, the Orlando Sentinel has identified them as Tiffany Score and Steven Mills.
In vitro fertilization involves fertilizing a woman’s eggs with a man’s sperm and storing them until the couple decides to proceed with pregnancy. According to the lawsuit, the couple stored three viable embryos in 2020. In April 2025, the clinic implanted one of these embryos into Score’s uterus, resulting in the birth of a “beautiful, healthy female child.” However, the couple soon noticed discrepancies.
“Tragically, although both Jane Doe and John Doe are Caucasian, Baby Doe exhibited physical traits of a non-Caucasian child,” the lawsuit states.
Genetic testing later revealed that the child shared no genetic ties with either parent, confirming that the wrong embryo had been implanted.
The lawsuit also raises concerns about the possibility that their embryos were mistakenly given to another individual, who may now be pregnant with or raising their biological child, according to statements from the couple’s lawyers.
One of the couple’s lawyers, John Scarola, sent the clinic a letter on Jan. 5 about the situation and demanded they cooperate in “uniting Baby Doe with her genetic parents” and determine what happened to his clients’ embryos.
The new parents had an “intensely strong emotional bond” with their unborn child during pregnancy and even though they are raising a child who is not biologically related to them, they would willingly keep the girl. But Score and Mills recognize the girl “should legally and morally be united with her genetic parents so long as they are fit, able and willing to take her,” the lawsuit stated.
Both the plaintiffs and the defendants held an emergency court hearing on Wednesday, per the Sentinel. Mara Hatfield, another plaintiff attorney, reportedly told a judge the mix-up could have occurred when the couple submitted the embryo in 2020 or when Score was injected in 2025. They want the clinic to pay for genetic testing for patients going back five years.
However, the attorney for the clinic, Francis Pierce III, raised privacy concerns for the clinic’s other patients.
“Patients would have to agree to be tested,” he reportedly said.
Judge Margaret Schreiber ordered the clinic to submit detailed plans on how it is addressing the situation by Friday. According to the Sentinel, the clinic had a notice on its website that said 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.” The notice has since been taken down.
During the hearing, Scarola said while the situation is unusual, the clinic made a “horrendous error.”
Neither McNichol nor Scarola immediately returned a message for comment.
