A Florida couple is suing an IVF clinic they allege mixed up embryos, resulting in the birth of a “non-Caucasian child” with no biological relation to the couple.
Tiffany Score and Steven Mills allege in the lawsuit that Orlando-based IVF Life, Inc. and its lead endocrinologist, Dr. Milton McNichol, implanted someone else’s embryo in Score in April 2025, the New York Post reported.
The pair stored three embryos at the clinic in 2020 and had an embryo implanted five years later. The couple gave birth to a “beautiful, healthy female child” in December, according to the lawsuit filed January 22 in Orange County Circuit Court.
The couple said they quickly realized something was amiss because they are “Caucasian” and the baby “displayed the physical appearance of a racially non-Caucasian child,” the lawsuit reads, according to the report.
Genetic testing ultimately confirmed the child has no biological relationship to Score or Mills.
The couple’s attorney, John Scarola, said he sent a letter to the clinic on January 5 detailing the situation and requesting the unification of the baby “with her genetic parents,” and demanding to know what happened to their embryos.
The couple is also concerned another woman may have been implanted with their embryo, according to the report.
The lawsuit details that while the couple has formed “an intensely strong emotional bond” with the baby, they feel a legal and moral obligation to try to unite her with her biological parents.
“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 couple is asking the court to take emergency action to make the clinic alert all affected patients, pay for extensive genetic testing, and report whether or not other people have been impacted by the swap.
In an emergency hearing on Wednesday, Scarola argued before Judge Margaret Schreiber that the mix-up may have happened in 2020 or 2025, thus requiring five years of clinic-paid genetic testing, according to the report.
“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 reportedly said.
The clinic posted a now-deleted notice on its website saying 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,” according to the report.
McNichol, who is considered one of the area’s best fertility doctors, received his medical degree from Loma Linda University School of Medicine in 2004, according to the report. He has been chosen for many awards over the years, including six Patients’ Choice Awards, four Compassionate Doctor recognitions, and a 2014 top 10 doctor ranking in the Sunshine State, according to the report.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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