Their baby was not genetically related to them. A couple from Los Angeles (United States) filed a complaint on Monday against a clinic specializing in in vitro fertilization (IVF) after realizing that two fertilized eggs had been exchanged and that they had given birth to the child from another family.
IVF involves the insemination in the laboratory of an egg with a sperm, the fertilized egg being subsequently re-implanted in the mother’s uterus. But when Daphna and Alexander Cardinale first saw their newborn baby in September 2019, they immediately noticed that the little girl had darker skin and hair than the rest of the family. “Genetic testing revealed that the baby Alexander and Daphna had delivered and raised for several months was not genetically related to them. Their baby was the biological child of complete strangers, ”says law firm Peiffer Wolf.
The two couples exchange their children
According to the complaint filed, the embryos of two couples were exchanged, presumably negligently, and implanted in the woman who was not the donor of the egg. After the discovery of this error, the two couples got acquainted and decided to take back custody of their genetic child, an exchange now formalized by the courts.
But the error left traces and suffering, argues the Cardinale couple in their complaint, which seeks damages. “The birth of our daughter should have been one of the happiest times of my life. But I was immediately shaken and disturbed by the fact that I did not recognize her, ”said Alexander Cardinale. “When the truth came out, swapping the kids made it even more upsetting. Losing the child you know for the genetic child you don’t yet know is really an impossible nightmare, ”he says.
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