A Florida mom had attended an IVF clinic for help and gave birth last month, is now suing that clinic as she claims the “beautiful, healthy female child” is not theirs.
According to the lawsuit, the child has “no genetic relationship” to either parent and there seems to have been a mix-up at the clinic. The clinic involved is the Fertility Center of Orlando and the lawsuit claims the anonymous couple, identified as John and Jane Doe in the filing, started using the center’s services in March 2025.
The mother had an embryo implanted that she believed contained both the Plaintiffs’ DNA, and carried the child successfully through the full-term pregnancy. In early December, the mom gave birth to a “beautiful, health female child,” but the baby, named Baby Doe in the court documents, appears to be of a different race to the parents, according to the suit.
“While both Jane Doe and John Doe are racially Caucasian, Baby Doe displayed the physical appearance of a racially non-Caucasian child,” the lawsuit states.
Allegedly, the discrepancy led to the couple to “employ genetic testing of the parentage of the child to whom they had given birth,” the suit reads. “The testing confirmed that Baby Doe has no genetic relationship to either of the Plaintiffs.”
“Of equal concern to the (couple) is the obvious possibility that someone else was implanted with one or more of their embryos and… is presently parenting one or more of their children,” the mother’s lawsuit added.
According to the lawsuit, the couple has developed an “intensely strong emotional bond” to the baby, “despite the certain knowledge that Baby Doe is not their genetically matched child.” Moreover, the suit states that they would be happy to keep the little girl, but that they understand that she should be “legally” and “morally” united with her genetic parents.
“(The couple) would willingly keep her in their care; however, for the sake of both Baby Doe and her genetic parents, they recognize that Baby Doe should legally and morally be united with her genetic parents so long as they are fit, able, and willing to take her,” the lawsuit continues.
Moreover, the couple “has an equally compelling right to be fully informed of the disposition of their own embryos and 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.”
According to News 6 Orlando, the couple has requested the IVF clinic to ask for help identifying their daughter’s biological family, but have not received a response.
Meanwhile, the court filing demands emergency relief from the court to compel the IVF clinic to disclose to all its patients details of the complaint so they can determine whether the girl is their biological child, and if they have received the couple’s embryos instead.
Moreover, the suit demands that the clinic pays for genetic testing for all relevant patients and their children during the past five years while they held custody of the couple’s embryos. Finally, the law suit requests the clinic to disclose any discrepancy in the parentage of the children of all their patients whose birth resulted from embryo implantation in the past five years.
