[Ammi]

BOKSBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – On August 2nd, 2010, two women’s lives were changed forever at the Tambo Memorial Hospital. It wasn’t the simple fact that they gave birth to healthy babies that was the life altering event; it was the fact that the hospital would mix up their babies

It has been nearly four years since the mix up and only surfaced when one of the women, Ms. du Toit, was embroiled in a battle over child support with her baby daddy. One can only imagine the perplexity both parents faced when read the results of the paternity test which revealed that the man wasn’t the father of the child and neither was the mother. In the father’s case, he was absolved of child support because he did not father the child.

Needless to say, the mother made a beeline to the hospital to locate her child. Therapy sessions were set up for both women to attend jointly. Treatment spanned a period of several months and finally ended this past February.

Ms. du Toit wants her own biological child back, but has lost faith in the hospital to arbitrate that process.

She has now taken civil action of her own. She is making the case that she is not the legal guardian of the child in her custody given that she is not the mother and has not gone through a legal adoption process. Admittedly, she has a very valid point. Also, has legal parental rights over her child

The Centre for Child Law, a South African group that promotes children’s rights, said Thursday that a court has appointed it to find out about the switch at a Boksburg hospital near Johannesburg, and to decide what would be in the children’s best interests.

Ms. du Toit is at odds with some experts who would want to subordinate her parental rights to what would be deemed in the child’s best interest. In all likelihood, she was probably better off going to court directly than to let the same institution that created the emotional morass to arbitrate some form of resolution

They are a hospital not a court of family law and their primary aim to seek a solution that shields them from as much liability as possible.

“We have to do a comprehensive investigation regarding the circumstances of the swap, the children’s current circumstances and what would be in the children’s best interests in the long terms,” Carina du Toit, a lawyer at the Centre for Child Law, wrote in an email

“They did a paternity test and it was established that neither party was the parent of the child. They went back to the hospital and it was confirmed they had been swapped at birth,” Henk Strydom, the lawyer of one of the mothers, told Reuters.

“She was absolutely devastated. She was traumatized,” Strydom added. “My client wants her baby back. She is the biological mother of the child.”

In her affidavit, du Toit said she did not know the location of the biological fathers. She said each child was with a caregiver who was not recognized by the law as the child’s guardian, and that litigation “might be necessary and inevitable to remedy the tragic situation in which these children and mothers find themselves.”
She also said: “There is a potential conflict of interests between what the biological mothers desire as an outcome and what may be in the best interests of the children.”




http://www.ecanadanow.com/curiosity/...ched-at-birth/



..would you want your child back, could you give up the child you thought was yours..?..

[Kazanne]

I can honestly say,I don't know,you would have bonded with the child you have,but would know this other one is your flesh and blood,I really cannot say,I'll have a think about this dilemma.

[armand.kay]

I would be pissed but I don't think it would effect my relationship with the child I've bonded with. I'm not sure I would even want to meet my biological child.

[Saph]

Originally Posted by armand.kay

I would be pissed but I don't think it would effect my relationship with the child I've bonded with. I'm not sure I would even want to meet my biological child.

this tbh

not until they were a lot older anyway

[Vicky.]

How on earth can you not tell

Every baby has a bit of their parents in them, and it shows. My god, Skye is the utter double of Gavin..and when she was born she had my exact eye colour too.

[AnnieK]

My son was born on 2010 too....if I found out tomorrow he wasn't mine, they would have to kill me to take him from me. I would want at least contact with the other mother / child in case there was a need ie medical treatment that only a blood relative can give but no way could I give my boy up.... I would be curious but I couldn't let him go...I couldn't deal with the thought of what he would go through if I gave him away.....it's cruel