Florida couple claims fertility clinic error led to birth of a ‘non-Caucasian child’ not biologically theirs |
A Florida couple has filed a lawsuit alleging a major fertility clinic error led to the birth of a child who is not biologically theirs, triggering an urgent court fight and a wider investigation into how the mix-up happened. The case, first reported by the Orlando Sentinel and Law & Crime, centers on an embryo implantation that the couple says went wrong at an Orlando facility.Tiffany Score and Steven Mills allege that Orlando fertility clinic IVF Life, Inc., and its head reproductive endocrinologist, Dr. Milton McNichol, implanted another patient’s embryo in Score’s uterus in April 2025, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
Lawsuit details and genetic testing findings
According to the lawsuit filed January 22 in Orange County Circuit Court and obtained by Law & Crime, the couple had stored three viable embryos at the clinic in 2020 for in vitro fertilization, a process in which embryos are created and preserved for later pregnancy.Five years later, one embryo was implanted. Score gave birth to a “beautiful, healthy female child” on Dec. 11, 2025, the filing states.The couple says they immediately suspected something was wrong because both parents are “Caucasian” while the baby “displayed the physical appearance of a racially non-Caucasian child,” according to the complaint. Subsequent genetic testing determined the child has “no genetic relationship” to either parent.Their attorney, John Scarola, said he sent a letter to the clinic on Jan. 5 demanding it unite the baby “with her genetic parents” and explain what happened to his clients’ embryos, the Orlando Sentinel reported.The lawsuit says the couple formed an “intensely strong emotional bond” with the child during pregnancy and after birth, and that the baby remains in their care. While they are willing to raise the child, they say they feel a legal and moral obligation to return her to her biological parents if those parents come forward.“They have fallen in love with this child,” Scarola told the Orlando Sentinel.“They would be thrilled in the knowledge that they could raise this child. But their concern is that this is someone else’s child, and someone could show up at any time and claim the baby and take that baby away from them.”The suit also raises the fear that another patient may have received one of Score and Mills’ embryos and could be pregnant with, or already raising, their biological child.
Court hearing, clinic response and doctor background
The lawsuit seeks emergency court action requiring the clinic to notify potentially affected patients, fund broad genetic testing and disclose whether other families could be impacted by an embryo mix-up, according to Law & Crime and the Orlando Sentinel.An emergency hearing was held Wednesday before Judge Margaret Schreiber. At the hearing, Scarola argued the mix-up could have happened either when the embryos were stored in 2020 or during the 2025 implantation procedure, and asked that the clinic pay for five years of genetic testing for involved families, the Orlando Sentinel reported.Scarola described the situation as a “horrendous error” and said such cases are “very uncommon,” while acknowledging the legal complexity because of limited precedent.“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,” Schreiber said, according to the outlet.In a notice that was later deleted from its website, the clinic 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.”Dr. Milton McNichol received his medical degree from Loma Linda University School of Medicine in 2004 and is described by patients and colleagues as having a strong bedside manner and clinical expertise, according to Issuewire.com. The outlet notes he has received multiple Patients’ Choice Awards, Compassionate Doctor recognitions and a top-10 Florida doctor ranking in 2014.
