The biological parents of a baby girl born to another couple after an IVF mix-up in Florida are “heartbroken” and would have wanted to fight for custody of the child, according to their lawyer.
“They are heartbroken over what has happened, and they also understand that the birth couple are also suffering,” Rob Marcereau, the lawyer for the genetic parents of 6-month-old baby Shea, told NBC News.
“They had to make the heartbreaking decision to not fight for custody,” Marcereau said.
Tiffany Score and Steven Mills vowed to remain the baby girl’s “permanent” parents after coming to a “mutually devised custody agreement” with Shea’s biological parents last week.
Score and Mills sued the Fertility Center of Orlando and its head reproductive endocrinologist, Dr. Milton McNichol, in January for allegedly implanting the wrong embryo in April 2025.
The couple, who are both white, discovered the embryo mix-up after Score gave birth to a “non-Caucasian” Shea on Dec. 11, 2025.
Shea was later confirmed through DNA testing to be 100% South Asian.
Her biological parents would have preferred to keep the infant as their own, but knew it “would have been an incredibly uphill legal battle,” Marcereau continued.
The couple, however, did not feel that the custody fight would be in Shea’s best interest.
The decision to hand over custody to Score and Mills was hammered out over several meetings, where the couples shared “a lot of tears and hugs,” Marcereau said.
Shea’s biological parents also intend to sue the clinic and the doctor for forcing them to make this “agonizing” decision, the attorney added.
Score and Mills’ lawyer, Jack Scarola, said his clients “are committed” to respecting the privacy of Shea’s genetic parents, who have so far kept their identities from the public.
“They have begun and intend to continue to foster a relationship of friendship and trust” with the other couple, Scarola said.
Score and Mills also informed the judge they’d chosen a new medical center to handle any future IVF, and their embryo had been moved there, according to court papers filed in Orange County court last Friday.
That embryo will be tested for parentage, and they will “determine next steps,” the document said.
The Fertility Clinic of Orlando previously said that after “thoughtful consideration,” it would shutter by May 20.
Marcereau did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
