ORLANDO, Fla. – After giving birth last month, a Florida mother is now suing an IVF clinic after it turned out the baby wasn’t hers, according to court records obtained by News4JAX sister station WKMG in Orlando.
The lawsuit says that the couple — identified anonymously as John and Jane Doe — began working with Fertility Center of Orlando in March last year.
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At the time, the couple approached the Longwood-based clinic for IVF fertilization to help them start a family.
As part of the process, Jane Doe had an embryo implanted in her uterus that she believed had been created with her and her husband’s genetic material, the lawsuit states.
Just a couple of weeks before Christmas last month, she successfully gave birth to a baby girl, the lawsuit continues. But the baby appeared to be of a different race than the couple.
“Tragically, while both Jane Doe and John Doe are racially Caucasian, Baby Doe displayed the physical appearance of a racially non-Caucasian child,” the lawsuit reads.
According to the couple, the discovery caused them to seek out genetic testing, which revealed that the baby had no genetic relationship with either parent.
“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 lawsuit continues.
While the couple said they would willingly keep the baby girl in their care, they also said they recognized she should be given to her genetic parents, assuming they’re able to take her.
Court records say that the couple reached out to the Longwood clinic to figure out how to unite the baby with her real parents, though the clinic never provided a response.
As such, the lawsuit demands emergency relief for the following three points:
- Inform Patients: Compelling the clinic to disclose what happened to other relevant patients to determine whether the baby girl in this case is actually their child (and determine whether another patient received the Does’ embryo)
- Genetic Testing: Requiring the clinic to pay for genetic testing for all relevant patients and their children over the past five years while the clinic had custody of the Does’ embryos
- Parental Discrepancy: Requiring the clinic to disclose any discrepancy in the parentage of the children of all patients whose birth resulted from embryo implantation through the clinic over the past five years
The full lawsuit can be read on ClickOrlando.com.