A couple from Florida has initiated legal action against a fertility clinic, alleging a potential mix-up of embryos that resulted in the birth of a baby girl who is not biologically related to them.

Last week, the couple filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Orange County against IVF Life, Inc., situated near Orlando, and its principal reproductive endocrinologist, Dr. Milton McNichol. While the lawsuit uses pseudonyms John and Jane Doe for the couple and Baby Doe for the child, 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 a pregnancy. The lawsuit states that in 2020, the couple preserved three viable embryos through cryogenic storage. One of these embryos was implanted in Score’s uterus in April 2025. Following this procedure, she gave birth to a “beautiful, healthy female child.” However, the couple immediately sensed something was not right.

The lawsuit reveals that, “Unfortunately, while both Jane Doe and John Doe are racially Caucasian, Baby Doe exhibited physical traits of a racially non-Caucasian child.”

Subsequent testing confirmed that the child bore no genetic ties to either parent, indicating that the embryo implanted in Score was not produced by her and her husband.

“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,” plaintiff lawyers wrote.

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.