A couple in Florida will keep permanent custody of their six-month-old daughter after an embryo mix-up at a fertility clinic left the fate of the little girl in limbo. Tiffany Score and Stephen Mills have now reached an agreement with the baby's biological parents, bringing an unusual and emotional case closer to resolution. The outcome means the girl, Shay, will remain with the couple who have been raising her since birth.
According to court documents, the parties agreed in person to all of the terms involved. Under that agreement, Tiffany Score and Stephen Mills keep permanent custody of their daughter, Shay, despite the genetic complications that emerged after she was born. The arrangement was described as settling the central question of who the child would live with.
The couple discovered that they were not genetically related to Shay only after giving birth to her. The little girl had a noticeably different appearance than what they had expected, and within a short period of time it became apparent that the child they had brought into the world was not biologically their own. That realization set off the legal process that followed.
The birth itself had not been easy. Tiffany underwent a cesarean section in what was described as a very difficult delivery, but one that ultimately produced a healthy baby girl. It was only afterward, as the family looked at Shay, that questions about her origins began to take shape and grow more pressing.
The couple had gone through in vitro fertilization with a clinic in Orlando, where they believed they were having one of their own embryos implanted. Genetic tests later confirmed that they were not Shay's biological parents, pointing to a mix-up in the embryos handled by the clinic during the procedure.
In response, the couple filed a lawsuit against the fertility clinic and the doctor involved in the case. In a statement issued in January, the clinic said it would continue to assist in any way that it could, regardless of the outcome of the investigation into what went wrong during the process.
Attention has now turned to another embryo belonging to the couple, which is undergoing genetic testing. Their attorneys have requested that the case remain open until that testing is complete, a process that could take about six weeks. Until then, the family moves forward with Shay while the remaining questions raised by the mix-up are resolved.