Couple who gave birth to wrong baby in IVF mix-up reach custody agreement

A Florida couple, Tiffany Score and Steven Mills, has reached a custody agreement with the biological parents of the child they received due to an in-vitro fertilization (IVF) mix-up. The couple filed a lawsuit in January against the Fertility Center of Orlando and its lead endocrinologist, Dr. Milton McNichol, after discovering their daughter, Shea, was not genetically related to them.

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I’m glad the parties have reached an agreement while this child is relatively young.

The lawsuit detailed that Score was implanted with an embryo in March 2025 and gave birth in December. However, upon observing that their daughter appeared "racially non-Caucasian," the couple pursued genetic testing. The results confirmed Shea was 100 percent South Asian, prompting a search for the couple whose embryo had been implanted.

In April, Mara Hatfield, an attorney for Score and Mills, announced that DNA testing had identified a South Asian couple from a pool of potential parents whose egg retrieval and embryo transfer dates coincided with Score's. According to court filings viewed by multiple news outlets, Score, Mills, and "Patient 004" (representing the biological parents) have now "come to a mutually devised custody agreement."

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This ends one chapter in our heartbreaking journey, but it raises new issues that will have to be resolved.

Circuit Court Judge Margaret Schreiber formally approved the agreement on Monday, expressing relief that the parties reached a resolution while the child is still young. The agreement recognizes Score and Mills as the "permanent custodial parents of their daughter." While this chapter closes, the couple's lawyer noted that remaining questions regarding their own unaccounted-for embryos are still pending resolution.

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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.