A child born through IVF and surrogacy has turned out to be not genetically related to the couple who commissioned it. Blaming a ‘mix-up’ at the IVF clinic they used, the couple posted their situation on an internet message board.

The anonymous father, who is thought to be American, explained that the couple decided to pay a surrogate ‘lots of money’ to have a child.

He continued that he and his wife were ‘excited’ but when the baby was born they realised ‘something was wrong.’

‘The baby had Asian features, black hair and brown eyes when we are both white, blonde folks with blue eyes.

‘We immediately brought up the issue with the doctors and asked for a DNA test. I am not the father,’ he added.

He further wrote that he and his wife are ‘devastated’ and that the surrogacy and sperm bank did an investigation and told the pair that there was an ‘extremely rare’ mix-up and offered the couple financial compensation, but only if they didn’t go to the media about it or sue.

The father admitted he was thinking of taking legal action against the clinic anyway and not keep the baby. However, he added that the surrogate mother cannot keep the child as she already has five.

The case is similar to an Irish case that came before the courts in 2016. In that instance, an Irish couple commissioned a child through a foreign surrogacy arrangement but discovered after they had brought the child home that they had no genetic relationship to it. The result of that case was never publicised.