Georgia woman is suing a fertility clinic after an IVF mix-up left her carrying and giving birth to someone else’s baby—only to have him taken away months later.
Krystena Murray’s world was shattered in December 2023 when she welcomed her long-awaited child, only to realize something was terribly wrong. Despite undergoing IVF with Coastal Fertility Specialists using her own embryo and a chosen sperm donor, the baby she delivered was Black—while both she and the donor were white.
Fearing a devastating mistake, Murray turned to an at-home DNA test, which confirmed her worst nightmare: the child she had carried and loved was not biologically hers. But instead of giving up, she resolved to raise the little boy as her own.
The truth, however, could not be ignored. When Murray notified Coastal Fertility of the shocking error, the clinic informed the child’s biological parents—who immediately sued for custody. Faced with a heart-wrenching legal battle she was unlikely to win, Murray made the agonizing decision to relinquish custody when the baby was five months old.
“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 shared in an emotional statement.
Speaking at a press conference, she expressed the depth of her trauma, describing herself as an “unwitting surrogate, against her will.”
“I have never felt so violated,” she told reporters. “I spent my entire life wanting to be a mom. I loved, nurtured, and grew my child, and I would have done literally anything to keep him.”
Coastal Fertility acknowledged the incident in a statement, claiming, “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 put additional safeguards in place.”
But for Murray, the damage is irreversible. Her attorney, Adam Wolf, revealed another unsettling truth: no one knows what happened to Murray’s own embryos. This chilling reality highlights a deeper issue with IVF—one where children’s lives can be misplaced, discarded, or lost entirely.
While the clinic insists this was a rare mistake, IVF mix-ups have happened before, leaving families devastated and children caught in heartbreaking custody battles. This case serves as a haunting reminder that when children are treated as commodities, the consequences can be catastrophic—shattering lives in ways that can never be undone.
