A Georgia woman, in the United States, Krystena Murray, is suing an IVF clinic after discovering she had unknowingly carried and given birth to a baby that was not biologically hers.
The mix-up, which occurred at Coastal Fertility clinic in May 2023, led to Murray delivering a baby boy who did not share her or the selected sperm donor’s ethnicity.
Despite learning of the mistake, Murray bonded with the child and hoped to keep him. She cared for him for several months before the biological parents were granted custody.
“To carry a baby, fall in love with him, deliver him, and build the uniquely special bond between mother and baby, all to have him taken away. I’ll never fully recover from this,” Murray shared in a statement through her lawyer.
In December 2023, Murray, who is white, gave birth to a Black baby. She refrained from sharing photos or allowing friends and family to meet him.
Suspicious of the circumstances, she used an at-home DNA kit, which confirmed in January 2024 that she and the child were not biologically related.
The following month, Murray informed Coastal Fertility of the error, prompting the clinic to contact the biological parents.
They sued for custody when the baby was three months old. After consulting her legal team, Murray chose to relinquish custody, as she was advised she had no legal grounds to retain the child.
He now resides with his biological parents in another state under a different name.
Murray’s lawsuit states that she remains uncertain whether her embryo was implanted in another woman or what ultimately happened to it.
Coastal Fertility acknowledged the error and expressed regret in a statement to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, “This was an isolated event with no further patients affected. The same day this error was discovered, we immediately conducted an in-depth review and put additional safeguards in place to further protect patients and to ensure that such an incident does not happen again.”
IVF mix-ups have led to several lawsuits against US fertility clinics in recent years. The procedure involves fertilizing a woman’s eggs with a man’s sperm in a lab before implanting the embryos in a uterus.
