Heartbreaking Mix-Up In NY

A white woman who gave birth to a white baby and a black baby after she was accidentally implanted with another couple's embryos will surrender the black infant to the couple believed to be the biological parents.

CBS News Correspondent Elizbeth Kaledin reports that it all started in a Manhattan fertility clinic last April when two women - one black, the other white, and both struggling to get pregnant for years - had appointments to be implanted with fertilized eggs.

It's a widely practiced and relatively simple procedure. But that day, according to lawyers representing Deborah Perry-Rogers and Donna Fasano, something went wrong.

"During the implantation procedure there was some confusion in the room and inadvertently, three eggs of Ms. Rogers that were to be discarded were placed in Ms. Fasano," said Rudolph Silas, the lawyer for the Rogers family.

Court papers said that 71-year-old Dr. Lillian Nash implanted eggs fertilized by their husbands in the two women's uteruses.

The mistake meant that Donna Fasano gave birth to two babies, one black and one white, who are now three-months old. In a heartbreaking decision, Fasano agreed this week to give the black baby to the Rogers.

"We both want what's in the best interest of the child," she wrote. "We are giving him up because we love him."

"She loves this boy. She doesn't look at this boy as black or white. This is her son. She wants the boy to know she carried the baby. It was a mistake here," said Ivan Tantleff, the lawyer for Donna Fasano.

The families and their attorneys have now formed an awkward alliance to sue the doctors at the clinic, who had no comment.

Medical ethicists say this rare case is a reminder that even the marvels of technology can be hindered by human error.

The mothers plan to meet soon and have promised to let the two boys know each other as they grow up. Brothers: part of one big family born out of the perils of technology.