US: Woman sues clinic after carrying wrong baby in IVF error

A woman in the United States who unknowingly carried and gave birth to a baby boy who was not biologically hers is taking legal action against an IVF center over the mishap after being compelled to relinquish custody.

Krystena Murray, a Georgia resident, conceived following IVF treatment at the Coastal Fertility clinic in May 2023.

However, it later became evident that the embryo she had been carrying actually belonged to another couple—after she delivered a baby boy of a different ethnicity than both her and the sperm donor she had selected.

Despite the mistake, Murray wished to keep the child and cared for him for several months until the biological parents were granted legal custody.

In a statement issued through her attorney, Murray said, “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, a white woman, gave birth to a Black baby in December 2023. She never shared pictures of the child online or allowed her loved ones to see him.

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Eventually, she purchased a home DNA test, and the results, which she received in late January 2024, confirmed that they were not genetically related, according to the lawsuit filed against the clinic.

She notified the clinic of the error the following month, prompting it to inform the biological parents, who then pursued custody when the baby was three months old.

Murray willingly surrendered custody after her legal advisors informed her that she had no chance of prevailing in family court. The child now resides with his biological parents in another state and has been given a different name.

The lawsuit states that Murray remains unaware of whether the clinic, Coastal Fertility Specialists, mistakenly implanted her embryo into another patient or what ultimately became of it.

In a statement to CBS News, the BBC’s US affiliate, Coastal Fertility admitted to the error and expressed regret for the emotional distress caused.

“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 implemented additional safeguards to further protect patients and ensure that such an incident does not happen again,” the statement read.

In recent years, multiple lawsuits have been filed against fertility clinics in the United States over IVF errors.

IVF, or in vitro fertilization, is a procedure in which a woman’s eggs are fertilized by a man’s sperm in a laboratory before the embryos are implanted into the uterus.

(BBC)

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE