Embryo mix-up: Central Florida couple confirms ID of baby's genetic parents

Martin E. Comas, Orlando Sentinel on Apr 22, 2026

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ORLANDO, Fla. — The couple at the heart of an embryo mix-up case centering on a Seminole County fertility clinic has identified the genetic parents of their baby girl.

Tiffany Score and Steven Mills of Melbourne said in a statement late Tuesday that the identity of the other couple and other information about their case, which prompted national headlines, will remain confidential to respect their privacy. It is not clear whether the other couple will seek to raise the child, and Florida law is murky on their right to do so.

But Score and Mills, who used in-vitro fertilization to become parents, proclaimed their commitment to the nearly 4-month-old baby girl borne by Score.

“Only one thing is as absolutely certain as it was on the day our daughter was born: We will love and will be this child’s parents forever,” their brief statement said.

The fertility clinic initially told Score she had been implanted with an embryo created with her egg and Mills’ sperm, but in December she delivered a baby girl who is not their biological child.

Neither the couple’s statement nor their attorney answered questions about the intentions of the baby girl’s genetic parents.

Score and Mills said they plan to continue seeking answers as to what happened to their embryos and whether any of them were mistakenly implanted into another woman, who could be raising their biological child. They also plan to pursue malpractice claims against the doctor and other staff who ran the Fertility Center of Orlando in Longwood, which has now been sold.

“This ends one chapter of our heartbreaking journey,” the Melbourne couple said in their statement. “Questions about the disposition of our own embryos are still unanswered and are even more unlikely to ever be answered,” according to the statement.

In late March 2020, Score had her eggs retrieved and then combined with Mills’ sperm by IVF Life Inc., which operates the clinic. The clinic later informed the couple that three viable embryos were created and then frozen.

In April 2025, the couple decided to have IVF Life implant Score with one of those embryos. Score got pregnant and gave birth to the girl in December.

But the couple quickly realized the baby did not share the same complexion as them and genetic testing later revealed she was not genetically their child.

Score and Mills then filed a lawsuit against Dr. Milton McNichol and IVF Life Inc., which owns Fertility Center of Orlando in Longwood.

Score and Mills said in their lawsuit they felt obligated to find their daughter’s biological parents and also worried that someone could demand custody and take the baby from them.

Legal experts say that laws in Florida — and in other states — on in-vitro fertilization are outdated and not clear on issues of custody rights when a mix-up occurs. Last year, a Georgia woman sued a fertility clinic after she gave birth to a boy conceived through IVF who turned out not to be genetically hers. She ended up losing custody of him to his biological parents after months of bonding with him.

The couple and their attorneys have said the clinic ran a sloppy operation. For example, it used “ad-hoc handwritten labels” on the containers that held eggs, sperm and embryos, according to court filings.

As part of that ongoing court case, the clinic offered genetic testing to other patients who had used its services and could be the parents of Score and Mills’ daughter.

In February, an unnamed couple who used the same clinic and gave birth to a boy the same month as Score delivered her daughter agreed to undergo that testing, according to attorneys and court documents.

Lawyers for the clinic and McNichol said in a February court hearing that they would pay for the genetic testing for that couple and others who underwent in-vitro fertilization during the same time period.

But it’s not been revealed whether that couple are the genetic parents of the baby girl. No other information about that testing has been revealed publicly.

Score and Mills plan to file a separate lawsuit against McNichol and others involved in the case, said Mara Hatfield, their attorney, in a statement Wednesday.

“We will proceed separately with addressing the irrefutable malpractice committed by Dr. McNichol, the embryologists at issue, and the various clinics and laboratories with which they were associated, so that we can address recovery for our clients,” she said.

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