A Florida couple caught in the middle of a heartbreaking IVF mix-up says a major piece of the puzzle has finally been found, the biological parents of the baby they gave birth to have officially been identified.
According to their legal team, Tiffany Score and Steven Mills first realized something wasn’t right after welcoming their newborn daughter, Shea. The couple later filed a lawsuit in January against the Fertility Center of Orlando and its lead reproductive endocrinologist after discovering the baby they carried and delivered was not genetically related to either of them.
The couple had gone through in vitro fertilization at the Longwood, Florida clinic, expecting to start their family after what’s often an emotional and expensive journey. But after Shea was born, questions started to surface. Court documents say the couple chose to move forward with genetic testing after noticing their baby “displayed the physical appearance of a racially non-Caucasian child.”
That testing led to a shocking discovery.
Attorney Mara Hatfield, who represents the couple, shared that DNA results showed the baby is 100% South Asian. From there, the fertility clinic reportedly reviewed multiple cases and narrowed things down to one South Asian couple among 16 possible sets of parents whose egg retrieval and embryo transfer timelines matched Score’s.
Now, according to statements released this week, a match has been confirmed, meaning Shea’s biological parents have officially been identified. However, the identity of that couple is being kept private, according to the news outlet.
Even with that major update, the emotional weight of the situation hasn’t gone anywhere. In a statement shared through their law firm, Score and Mills made it clear that no matter what science says, their love for the child they’ve been raising hasn’t changed.
“This ends one chapter in our heartbreaking journey, but it raises new issues that will have to be resolved,” the statement released by their law firm said. “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.”
Meanwhile, the legal fight is far from over. Court filings show the defendants have not denied that the baby delivered to Score and Mills “should be, but is not, the genetic child” of the couple. The clinic has said it is cooperating with efforts to locate the correct biological parents and sort through what went wrong.