Woman who gave birth to another couple’s baby sues IVF clinic

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 IVF 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 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.

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 Donald Trump’s policies on reproductive rights. 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 IVF 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, Murray, a single woman, sought out the services of Coastal Fertility Specialists to conceive a child with a chosen sperm donor. Murray underwent an embryo transfer in May 2023.

Murray said she knew as soon as the child was born, in December 2023, that something hadn’t gone as planned: 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.

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, 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, 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.

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