A FLORIDA couple who gave birth to the wrong baby after a shocking IVF mix-up have been granted custody.
Tiffany Score and Steven Mills, who are white, welcomed baby girl Shea, who is black, after another family’s embryo was mistakenly implanted.
Tiffany Score and Steven Mills have been granted custody of six-month old Shea Credit: Facebook
Tiffany gave birth to Shea after an IV clinic mix-up Credit: Facebook
The couple sued the IVF clinic after realising the error, but committed themselves to finding the child’s biological parents, describing it as a “moral obligation”.
In April, Tiffany and Steven announced that they had been identified through genetic testing.
They said at the time: “This ends one chapter in our heartbreaking journey, but it raises new issues that will have to be resolved.
“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.”
And at a court hearing in Seminole County on Monday, a judge allowed a “mutually devised custody agreement”, according to Orlando Sentinel.
It will allow the couple to “continue as the permanent custodial parents of their daughter”.
Circuit Court Judge Margaret Schreiber said: “I’m glad the parties have reached an agreement while this child is relatively young.”
Tiffany and Steven said they would be respecting the privacy of Shea’s biological parents by keeping their identities “confidential.”
The couple tracked down Shea’s biological parents in April Credit: Facebook
They say they ‘will love and will be this child’s parents forever’ Credit: Facebook
The couple spent an agonising five years trying to have a baby before they eventually fell pregnant with the help of IVF with embryos they had stored since 2020.
But after Tiffany gave birth to the “beautiful and healthy” Shea in December, the new parents were left shocked and looking for answers.
Genetic testing confirmed the heartbreaking suspicion that .
The shocking results also raised questions about further mix-ups with Tiffany and Steven’s embryos.
The couple sued the Fertility Center of Orlando, alleging that another patient’s embryo was implanted in Tiffany’s uterus in April 2025.
Tiffany and Steven say they have an “intensely strong emotional bond” with Shea and love her “more than words can express”.
“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.”
One of the couple’s lawyers, Jack Scarola, told the Orlando Sentinel in January: “They have fallen in love with this child.
Tiffany and Steven say they love Shea ‘more than words can express’ Credit: Facebook
The parents sued the fertilization clinic after the mix-up Credit: Orlando Circuit Court
“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 parents said Shea “should legally and morally be united with her genetic parents so long as they are fit, able and willing to take her”.
They also wanted to know if their own embryos were used with a different couple in a similar mix-up.
In April, the Fertility Center of Orlando announced it was closing and that another clinic would be opening in the same facility.
The Fertility Centre of Orlando previously stated it was cooperating with an investigation “to support one of our parents in determining the source of an error that resulted in the birth of a child who is not genetically related to them”.
How does IVF work?
In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) is a common fertility treatment used to help families get pregnant
- A full cycle of IVF takes around 3 to 6 weeks to complete.
- An injection or nasal spray stops your ovaries producing eggs naturally.
- Once your ovaries are no longer producing eggs, you’ll inject yourself every day for 2 weeks with medicine that increases your egg supply.
- A doctor at the clinic collects your eggs.
- Eggs are fertilised with sperm in a lab and the embryo is placed in a woman’s womb.
- A pregnancy test is taken 16 days after the embryo transfer.
- If healthy embryos are left over, they can be frozen for future IVF attempts.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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