&w=64&q=75)
The day Krystena Murray discovered that she was pregnant after undergoing IVF treatment at the Coastal Fertility Clinic in May 2023 marked one of the happiest moments of her life. However, that joy was soon replaced with horror when she gave birth in December of the same year. Despite being white and having selected a white sperm donor, Krystena gave birth to a black baby boy. She was unable to share her newborn with her family and friends, and in January of the following year, a DNA test confirmed that neither she nor the baby were genetically related.
Read also: 4-month-old baby burnt to death as fire guts wooden structures at Kissiman Junction
Krystena alerted the IVF clinic to the dreadful mix-up but decided to keep the baby, raising him for several months until his biological parents filed for custody.
“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,” a heartbroken Krystena Murray said in a statement.
Ultimately, Krystena voluntarily gave up custody of the baby she had carried in her womb after her legal team advised that she stood no chance of being granted custody over the child’s biological parents. The baby now resides with his biological parents in another state, under a different name.
“I was happy. I was a mom. He was beautiful and perfect, but it was also very clear something was wrong,” Murray said during a press conference announcing her lawsuit against the Coastal Fertility Clinic. “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.”
Krystena’s lawyer stressed the immense shock she felt when she first saw the baby. As a Caucasian woman who had selected a sperm donor with a similar appearance, the baby was visibly African American – a stark contrast to what she had expected.
Coastal Fertility Clinic has acknowledged the error, but it maintains that it was “an isolated event with no further patients affected,” adding that new safeguards have been implemented to ensure that such a situation never happens again.