White couple wins custody of child from embryo mix-up

A white couple in Florida will continue raising a mixed-race baby girl after reaching a custody agreement with the child's biological parents, following a rare embryo mix-up incident.

On 16/6, district court Judge Margaret Schreiber recognized a joint agreement, officially establishing the permanent legal parenthood of Steven Mills and Tiffany Score over baby Shea.

This ruling came after the couple located their daughter's biological parents in April this year, whose identities remain private. Judge Schreiber expressed satisfaction that the two families reached common ground early in the child's life, helping to safeguard her future.

The incident began in 2020 when Steven Mills and Tiffany Score froze three embryos at the Orlando Fertility Center in Longwood. In 4/2025, doctors proceeded with an embryo transfer to Ms. Score. She gave birth to baby Shea in December of the same year. Noticing their daughter displayed different racial characteristics, despite both parents being white, the couple decided to undergo DNA testing. They were shocked to discover the child had no biological connection to them. They immediately filed a lawsuit against the Orlando Fertility Center for a serious error in the embryo handling process.

The clinic admitted to negligently implanting another couple's embryo into Ms. Score, instead of the embryo created from their own egg and sperm. Records identified Shea's biological mother as "Patient 004". Under legal pressure, the clinic conducted widespread DNA testing of embryos stored around the same time and confirmed Patient 004 as Shea's biological mother, as she was the sole client undergoing services in 3/2020. The two families also met in recent weeks before reaching this humanitarian agreement.

This scandal once again raised an alarm about management loopholes within the reproductive assistance industry in the US, which experts believe lacks strict oversight compared to many other developed nations. Following the incident, the Orlando Fertility Center faced severe legal and financial crises, forcing it to close and transfer all its facilities to another healthcare system.