A judge ordered weekly hearings in a case involving a Florida couple who alleges that an IVF clinic gave them the wrong embryos, which they learned upon the birth of a baby girl last year.
Tiffany Score and Steven Mills filed a lawsuit against the Fertility Center of Orlando last month, asking that the reproductive health clinic identify the biological parents of the baby Score gave birth to in December, according to the complaint filed last month. The couple is also asking for information on what happened to their own embryos and whether or not someone else gave birth to their biological child.
According to the January complaint, Score gave birth to a baby girl on Dec. 11, 2025, but it was immediately clear that the baby was unlikely to be related to the couple. Mills and Score are both "racially caucasian" while the baby had the appearance of a "racially non-caucasian child," the complaint said.
"Genetic testing also proved that the baby was not Mills and Score's biological child," according to the complaint.
The couple said that they developed a strong bond with the baby girl, but that they feel a moral and legal obligation to unite her with her biological parents.
Score and Mills also feel they deserve to be relieved of the "ever-increasing mental anguish of not knowing whether a child or children belonging to them are in someone else's care."
A motion filed last week requested an emergency hearing in the case, after the couple alleged that the fertility clinic failed to identify the baby's parents to them, and that a person contacted them to say they had an embryo transfer at the same time as Score did last year.
"This patient, acting on her own initiative in response to published media reports about this litigation, self-reported to Plaintiffs as someone who also had an embryo transfer on April 7, 2025, and who birthed a baby in December 2025," the motion said.
The woman, who was not identified, has a last name similar to the couple's, the motion said. Photos of her and her husband also allegedly show they have a similar physical appearance to the baby girl who Score birthed in December.
But the woman gave birth to a baby boy, and Score and Mills were under the belief their remaining embryos were girls, the motion said.
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The motion alleges that the clinic did provide the couple with a report, but that it only detailed the clinic's processes and did not include information on who else might have received their embryo or who the baby girl's parents might be.
Robert T. Terenzio, an attorney representing Fertility Center of Orlando, submitted a letter to the court outlining a proposed protocol for investigating the situation in order to protect the privacy of the patients.
Among the items on the list was having the clinic work on an internal investigation separate from updates to the court. It also suggested providing the court with operational facts and aggregate information that do not contain identifiable information openly, but only providing information that contains personal identifying information under appropriate safeguards, according to the letter filed with the court.
Terenzio did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment on the matter on Thursday.
The Fertility Center of Orlando told NBC News affiliate WESH that it was "actively cooperating with an investigation to support one of our patients."
"Multiple entities are involved in this process, and all parties are working diligently to help identify when and where the error may have occurred," the statement said. "Our priority remains transparency and the well-being of the patient and child involved."
Judge Margaret Schreiber ordered weekly status hearings in the case during an emergency relief hearing on Tuesday, according to the court minutes.
The clinic was ordered to provide a certification that the patients were contacted, as well as to advise the court on who has waived their confidentiality and who has not. A report on the confidentiality matter will be sent directly to the court 24 hours before the next hearing.
Attorneys representing Score and Mills did not immediately respond to an email from NBC News requesting comment on Thursday. The couple told WESH on Wednesday that, until this week's hearing, the clinic had not provided them with a timeline or any verifiable information in the case.
"Faced with the prospect of a court order at yesterday's hearing, the clinic has now promised cooperation, but that promise has not yet been fulfilled," they said. "We hope it will be."
