A Georgia woman is suing a fertility clinic after she gave birth to someone else’s biological child following in vitro fertilization (IVF.)
Krystena Murray, of Savannah, filed a lawsuit against Coastal Fertility Specialists this week, alleging that she’s undergone emotional and physical pain after the embryo mix-up with another couple resulted in her having to give up the baby five months after it was born.
The suit says Murray, a white woman, chose a sperm donor with dirty blond hair and blue eyes, similar to her own. She became pregnant after Coastal Fertility transferred an embryo to her in 2023, but when she gave birth in December of that year, she “knew something was very wrong,” the lawsuit says, because the baby boy she had delivered was a “dark-skinned, African American baby.”
Still, Murray bonded with the baby and planned to raise him as her own. She requested a DNA test, which confirmed that the baby was not genetically related to her. When she let the clinic know, Coastal Fertility alerted the baby’s biological parents, who sued Murray for custody. She volunteered to give up the baby, she said, after her lawyers told her she had no chance of winning in court.
Murray turned over the baby when he was five months old, to the parents who live out of state, and has not seen the child since.
“The birth of my child was supposed to be the happiest moment of my life, and honestly, it was. But it was also the scariest moment of my life,” Murray told a news conference Tuesday, saying that her worst fears were confirmed.
“All of the love and joy I felt seeing him for the first time was immediately replaced by fear. How could this have happened?”
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Coastal Fertility Specialists, which operates clinics in Georgia and South Carolina, apologized for what it called “an unprecedented error that resulted in an embryo transfer mix-up” in a statement to The Associated Press. It said its staff had since adopted new safeguards to prevent similar mistakes from occurring in the future.
“Ms. Murray had no issues or concerns with the Baby’s race, other than the fact that it indicated to her that he was clearly not related to her,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit claims Murray refrained from sharing photos of the baby on social media and declined visits from family and friends. People who encountered Murray and the baby in public often made “awkward and inappropriate comments,” the suit says.
The clinic’s mistake led Murray to be “turned into an unwitting surrogate, against her will, for another couple,” it added. “She carried, lovingly cared for, and delivered a child who ended up not being biologically related to her. And then, for nearly half a year, she bonded with the child — her child — in addition to her bonding with the baby while he was still in the womb.”
During Tuesday’s news conference, Murray shared the grief she’s lived with for almost a year.
“I spent my entire life wanting to be a mom. I loved, nurtured and grew my child, and I would have done literally anything in my power to keep him. My baby is not genetically mine. He doesn’t have my blood. He doesn’t have my eyes. But he is and will always be my son.… My hope in sharing my story is that this will help prevent this from ever happening to anyone else trying to start a family of their own.”
Murray is seeking a jury trial and monetary damages in excess of US$75,000.
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