Couple in IVF mix-up now desperate to keep child after biological parents are identified
A Florida couple is now desperately fighting to keep the baby girl they welcomed in December, even after an IVF mix-up at the Fertility Clinic of Orlando led to them giving birth to a child who is not biologically theirs. The couple, Tiffany Score and Steven Mills, only recently learned the identity of the child’s biological parents.
After Shea’s birth, genetic testing revealed the couple were not her biological parents. Score and Mills made and froze embryos six years ago using IVF. Score’s first attempt to get pregnant in February 2025 failed, but a second attempt was made on April 7.
The procedure involves defrosting, incubating, and then implanting the labeled embryos. Genetic testing identified “Patient 004” as Shea’s natural parents.
Score and Mills initially felt a “moral obligation” to find Shea’s genetic parents, but now wish to continue raising her as their daughter.
“The results of testing delivered to us yesterday confirm that our baby’s genetic parents have been identified,” the couple told the Daily Mail in a statement through their attorney, Jack Scarola.
They added, “This ends one chapter in our heartbreaking journey, but it raises new issues that will have to be resolved. In addition, questions about the disposition of our own embryos are still unanswered and are even more unlikely to ever be answered. 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.”
They previously expressed in a statement, “We love our little girl, and if possible, we would hope to be able to continue to raise her ourselves with confidence that she won’t be taken away from us.”
Score’s Facebook page shows happy photos of her, Mills, and their daughter, Shea. The new mother stated that despite an “impossible and deeply frustrating” situation, she and Mills are not angry.
“What we are feeling right now isn’t anger, it’s gratitude. Gratitude and joy for our healthy, beautiful baby girl. Gratitude that we get to hold her, kiss her, and love her,” she wrote.
“She is the light of our lives and the one beautiful thing that has come from all of this. No matter how or why this happened, she is ours in every way that matters. The moments we share with her are everything. We are so overwhelmed by the support we have received as we continue to seek answers about our own embryos, if they still exist, or if we may have biological children somewhere in the world.”
News reports linked their mix-up to another patient with a last name similar to Mills’s who had an embryo transfer on the same day at the Fertility Clinic of Orlando and gave birth in December.
The complaint noted that after sharing photos of their children, it was observed that the woman and Shea had similar complexions.
The Mills’ attorney, Scarola, told the Daily Mail that the individual who contacted the couple is not Patient 004.
“There is no reason to believe that her baby is the genetic child of our clients,’ he added.
Scarola said there are still “remaining questions about the fate of Tiffany and Steven’s unaccounted-for embryos.”
“In addition, the safe transfer, confirmation of identity, and protection of the single remaining embryo the clinic attributes to our clients are still pending,” he said.
Meanwhile, the couple sued the clinic and fertility doctor, Milton McNichol, for negligence in January, demanding McNichol and the IVF center help unite Shea with her “genetic parents” and account for their missing embryos.
During a February 18 hearing, co-counsel Mara Hatfield suggested the embryo mix-up likely happened six years ago during fertilization but possibly in April 2025 during Score’s embryo implant.
Court documents indicate patients were informed via letter of the Orlando Fertility Clinic’s upcoming sale to new owners on May 1.
McNichol’s lawyers, meanwhile, filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, but it was unsuccessful.
They argued against the case, asserting that “Plaintiffs (1) fail to set forth a valid cause of action against Defendant; and (2) fail to otherwise meet the requirements for emergency and/or preliminary injunctive relief against the Defendant.”
The clinic claimed that honoring the couple’s request to locate Shea’s biological parents would violate other patients’ privacy.
“Plaintiffs cite no basis in any rule, statute or case which would give this Court any authority to require Defendant to go into patient files and contact patients of his practice who had embryos in storage in the Defendant’s office, to send an unsolicited copy of the Plaintiffs Amended Complaint and a copy of a photograph of the infant Plaintiff, somehow, with no description of how, affording these patients the opportunity to determine whether the infant Plaintiff might be their child or whether these patients may have been the recipient of one of their embryos,” the filing stated.
Dr. McNichol’s Florida medical license is active until January 2028. However, in May 2024, Florida’s Board of Medicine reprimanded him and issued a $5,000 fine following a June 2023 clinic inspection.
The inspection revealed multiple infractions, including the use of substandard equipment, risk-management non-compliance, and missing medication.
