A Las Vegas father and his 18-year-old daughter learned through an Ancestry DNA test that they aren’t related — and the pair are now suing the IVF doctors they say are responsible for the embryo mix-up.
The teen took a DNA test last year and made the shocking, life-altering discovery, according to the lawsuit filed Monday and obtained by Good Morning America.
She and her father, who both chose to remain anonymous, had believed she was born from a donor embryo fertilized with his sperm and then implanted in her now-deceased mother’s womb, the suit states.
The mom, the father’s late wife, gave birth to their daughter in October 2006.
The teen did the Ancestry test on Oct. 6, 2023, and learned the man she believed was her biological father wasn’t. The father and daughter suffered “extreme and severe emotional upset.”
The pair believe that the IVF clinic must have mixed up fertilized embryos.
To add to the unthinkable discovery, the father “has no idea what happened to the embryo created with his sperm” and if he has a biological child from it that he’s unaware of.
The father and daughter are suing the doctors who performed the IVF treatment — Dr. Rachel McConnell, who led the now-shuttered Nevada Fertility C.A.R.E.S., and embryologist Dee Harris, according to the outlet.
“Because of the actions of Defendants, and each of them, [the father] was deprived of the opportunity to create life from his heritage as was promised and planned by Defendants,” the lawsuit claims.
He is now working to legally adopt his own daughter — a process that will require “a significant sum of money,” the suit adds.
The pair is asking for a trial and damages, alleging that the doctors were reckless in their care.
“The departure from the standard of care, as well as the departure from ordinary care, was so reckless and outrageous that Defendants, and each of them, acted with implied malice and with a conscious disregard for the rights and safety of others,” the lawsuit states.
The father and daughter are represented by Murdock and Associates, who did not immediately return a Post inquiry.
“The problem at the end of the day is that we believe that the meticulous protocols that should have been followed were not,” the law firm told GMA.
McConnell and Harris could not immediately be reached for comment. Harris’ information and photo appeared to have been removed from her employer’s staff page.
