this post was submitted on 13 May 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 181 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I think there was a similar case, but about the mother. The courts took her baby and she was on trial for kidnapping.

Eventually a geneticists saw it on the news and suggested she got tested again using DNA samples from other parts of her body and they found out she also was a chimera.

Some racism was involved as she was working class and black, so the courts were just looking for a reason to take her baby and throw her ass in jail..

[–] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 87 points 1 month ago

Some racism was involved

Not surprised after reading the first paragraph

[–] dkppunk@piefed.social 22 points 1 month ago

I remember that one, it was the first time I heard of this scenario. It really sucks for folks involved, but it is kind of interesting too.

[–] arschfidel@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yes, it was the case of Lydia Fairchild

From Wikipedia

Fairchild stood accused of fraud by either claiming benefits for other people's children, or taking part in a surrogacy scam, and records of her prior births were put similarly in doubt. Prosecutors called for her two children to be taken away from her, believing them not to be hers. As time came for her to give birth to her third child, the judge ordered that an observer be present at the birth, ensure that blood samples were immediately taken from both the child and Fairchild, and be available to testify. Two weeks later, DNA tests seemed to indicate that she was also not the mother of that child.

A breakthrough came when her defense attorney,[1] Alan Tindell, learned of Karen Keegan, a chimeric woman in Boston, and suggested a similar possibility for Fairchild and then introduced an article in the New England Journal of Medicine about Keegan.[2][3] He realized that Fairchild's case might also be caused by chimerism. As in Keegan's case, DNA samples were taken from members of the extended family. The DNA of Fairchild's children matched that of Fairchild's mother to the extent expected of a grandmother. They also found that, although the DNA in Fairchild's skin and hair did not match her children's, the DNA from a cervical smear test did match. Fairchild was carrying two different sets of DNA, the defining characteristic of chimerism.

[–] MisterFrog@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You'd think they'd change DNA test methodologies so this sort of thing doesn't happen again

It's rare enough for them not to give a fuck. especially since it'll only hurt poor people who cant afford a genetic consultant