Tiffany Score and Steven Mills gave birth to a baby girl named Shea in December after undergoing IVF treatments at the Fertility Clinic of Orlando. Genetic testing after birth confirmed they are not Shea's biological parents, with the IVF laboratory allegedly making a confusion during embryo implantation by transferring an embryo not conceived from their gametes. The couple sued the clinic and their fertility doctor Milton McNichol for negligence in January.
Genetic testing results delivered on Tuesday identified another couple, referred to as Patient 004, as Shea's biological parents. Tiffany Score and Steven Mills want to keep raising Shea as their own child. According to initial investigation elements, about a dozen people might have been affected by similar embryo confusions at the same laboratory.
The results of testing delivered to us yesterday confirm that our baby's genetic parents have been identified.
According to Marie France, the couple's lawyer described that several families think they might have a parental link with Shea. DNA tests have been launched among people who had embryo implantations in 2025 at this laboratory to identify Shea's biological parents. Tiffany Score and Steven Mills are questioning the fate of their own embryos, including whether their male embryo is still in circulation or preserved.
It remains uncertain whether Tiffany Score and Steven Mills will get to keep custody of Shea, and the identity and intentions of Shea's biological parents, Patient 004, have not been disclosed. The exact number of people affected by embryo confusions at the Fertility Clinic of Orlando is still under investigation, and the outcome of the lawsuit against the clinic and Dr. Milton McNichol is pending.
This ends one chapter in our heartbreaking journey, but it raises new issues that will have to be resolved. In addition, questions about the disposition of our own embryos are still unanswered and are even more unlikely to ever be answered.
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.
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.
What we are feeling right now isn't anger, it's gratitude. Gratitude and joy for our healthy, beautiful baby girl. Gratitude that we get to hold her, kiss her, and love her.
She is the light of our lives and the one beautiful thing that has come from all of this. No matter how or why this happened, she is ours in every way that matters. The moments we share with her are everything.
We are so overwhelmed by the support we have received as we continue to seek answers about our own embryos, if they still exist, or if we may have biological children somewhere in the world.
Several families think they have a parental link with Shea.