A Georgia woman is suing a fertility clinic after she gave birth to a baby conceived through in vitro fertilization and subsequently lost custody of the child to his biological parents, according to a lawsuit.
The woman, Krystena Murray, 38, is suing Coastal Fertility Specialists, an I.V.F. clinic based in South Carolina, for the devastating mix-up, the lawsuit said. The clinic’s actions, which led to her losing custody of the baby after months of bonding with him, “have left irreparable damage to my soul,” she said at a news conference as reported by NBC News.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Coastal Fertility Specialists said that the clinic “deeply regrets the distress caused by an unprecedented error that resulted in an embryo transfer mix-up.”
“While this ultimately led to the birth of a healthy child, we recognize the profound impact this situation has had on the affected families, and we extend our sincerest apologies,” the emailed statement said.
Ms. Murray’s is among a handful of stories regarding mix-ups after in vitro fertilization, a procedure that is widely used by people seeking to have children and that has come under new scrutiny with the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the anticipation of President Trump’s policies on reproductive rights. Mr. Trump has said that he hopes to expand the practice and lower its cost, a move that could irk people in more conservative circles.
Stories of I.V.F. mix-ups are exceedingly rare. Still, those that do occur are harrowing for all involved, often leading to gut-wrenching decisions about a child’s future, sometimes years after the child has been raised by people who are not the biological parents.
“The laws on this are not particularly clear, and there aren’t that many of them,” said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the UC Davis School of Law. “There have been other mix-up cases like this, but finding clear precedent is challenging.”
According to court documents, Ms. Murray, a single woman, sought out the services of Coastal Fertility Specialists to conceive a child with a chosen sperm donor. Ms. Murray underwent an embryo transfer in May 2023.
Ms. Murray said she knew as soon as the child was born, in December 2023, that something hadn’t gone as planned: Ms. Murray, who was described in the lawsuit as a fair-skinned Caucasian woman, had selected a sperm donor who “physically resembled” her, the lawsuit said. But the child was born with dark skin and appeared to be African American, according to the lawsuit.
Ms. Murray said she realized that there had been a mistake at Coastal Fertility, and that she had likely been implanted with the wrong embryo.
Still, Ms. Murray took the child home and cared for him, breastfeeding him and taking him to doctor’s appointments. She avoided friends and family, fearing the obvious conclusion that the child was not hers, and did not post any images on social media. At a family funeral, she draped a blanket over the child’s carrier so no one could see him, according to court documents.
After her request for a DNA test was denied by a hospital, Ms. Murray said that she took an at-home genetic test in January 2024, which proved her fear: The child she had birthed was not related to her. She let the clinic know and hoped it would inform the couple whose child she had unknowingly carried.
“Potentially, Ms. Murray thought, Coastal Fertility has transferred her embryo to that other couple,” the lawsuit said.
The couple who were found to be the biological parents sued Ms. Murray for custody. Despite wanting to keep the child, she gave the boy up to the couple in May 2024, after her lawyers advised that she would not win in a custody dispute, she said.
The statement from Coastal Fertility said that “all of Ms. Murray’s embryos have been accounted for and are available to her at any time,” adding it remains committed “to supporting all impacted families with transparency and compassion.”
Ms. Murray has not seen the child since she gave him up to the other couple in May. In an interview on Wednesday, she said she was leaving the choice to the couple of whether they wanted to connect.
“I leave the contact up to them,” she said.
The clinic said that the mix-up was “isolated in our 15-year history” and that no other patients were 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.”
Ms. Murray said she had “no interest in using embryos that have been stored at Coastal” but added that she had not given up hope. “I have started to continue my journey with another clinic,” she said.
