This story began in the Netherlands, in the city of Utrecht, on December 1, 1993. Willem and Wilma Stewarts, hereditary white Dutchmen, without a single admixture of foreign blood, are preparing for the long-awaited birth. For six years, the wife could not get pregnant. The doctors and the IVF procedure came to the rescue.
The birth went pretty quickly. With a difference of three minutes, two boys were born. The first to be given the name Taeun is fair-skinned, just like his parents. The second, named Cohen, is curly and dark-skinned. One can only sympathize with the father when he was shown newborn sons.
The showdown began immediately. Willem refused to recognize the children, accusing his wife of infidelity. The couple turned to a family psychologist. And the doctors had to intervene in order not only to save the family, but also to understand the phenomenon. The answer was found 6 months after birth.
First they did a DNA test on all four Stewarts. And it turned out that Willem is the biological father of only one of the twins. Naturally fair-skinned Taewoon. And the DNA of a dark-skinned boy turned out to be closest to another client of that same clinic – a native of the island of Aruba off the coast of South America. But how the genes of a strange man ended up in an embryo for Wilma Stewart. The investigation found that one of the nurses simply forgot to wash the pipette when she took the material from the Aruban, and then from Willem Stewart.
The most interesting thing is that such a case, when, due to the carelessness of the medical staff, the twins during IVF had different fathers, was not the first. Five years before the Dutch case, the same thing happened in the US. But there, both children were white, and double paternity was accidentally revealed when the mother wanted to do a DNA test in newborns on a completely different issue.
In addition to the moral choice – to raise a dark-skinned child, there was also a legal one. His biological father had every right to the baby, as did Wilma Stewart. And Willem Stewart had nothing to do with it at all.
The matter went to court, but both fathers were able to agree. The Aruban gave up parental rights, and Willem adopted someone else’s black son.
The Stewarts deliberately told all the media about their story, becoming the heroes of the news. But they didn’t do it for financial rewards. The couple proceeded from the fact that relatives, friends and neighbors would definitely begin to gossip about the wife’s infidelity when they saw different twins.
