A woman from the United States is initiating legal action against an IVF clinic due to a mix-up that resulted in her unknowingly delivering a baby boy who was not genetically hers and subsequently having to relinquish custody. Krystena Murray, hailing from Georgia, discovered she was pregnant after undergoing IVF procedures at Coastal Fertility clinic in May 2023. However, it soon became evident that the embryo she carried actually belonged to another couple, as Ms. Murray gave birth to a boy whose ethnicity differed from her own and the selected sperm donor.
Despite the situation, Ms. Murray wished to retain the child and cared for him for several months until the biological parents were awarded custody. In a statement via her attorney, Ms. Murray expressed, “To bear a child, develop a bond with him, give birth, and experience the unique connection between mother and child, only to have him taken from me. I will never fully heal from this.” As a white woman, she gave birth to a black baby in December 2023. She refrained from sharing any photos of the child online or allowing her friends and family to see him.
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Eventually, she acquired a DNA testing kit for home use, and the results she received in late January 2024 revealed they were not biologically linked, as stated in the complaint filed against the clinic. She notified the clinic of the error the following month, which then informed the biological parents, who sought custody when the baby was three months old. Ms. Murray willingly surrendered custody after her legal advisers indicated that she had little chance of success in family court. The child is now living with his biological parents in a different state under a new name.
According to the complaint, Ms. Murray remains unaware of whether Coastal Fertility Specialists mistakenly transferred her embryo to another couple or what occurred with it thereafter. In a response to CBS News, Coastal Fertility acknowledged the error and expressed regret for the emotional distress it caused. “This was a unique case, and no other patients were impacted,” the statement affirming. “On the day the error was identified, we conducted a thorough review and implemented additional precautions to enhance patient safety and prevent similar incidents in the future.” Several lawsuits have been filed in recent years against US fertility clinics concerning IVF errors. IVF involves the fertilization of a woman’s eggs with a man’s sperm in a lab, after which the embryos are implanted into a woman’s uterus.
