23andMe Test Reveals Artificial Insemination Nightmare

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Couples trying to get pregnant through artificial insemination may have been victims of a disturbed fertility clinic worker who swapped his own sperm in place of at least one client’s,

CeCe Moore

writes at Your Genetic Genealogist

.

Moore, a genetic genealogy blogger, kept her sources anonymous, so we haven’t been able to verify the story in full. That said, we were able to confirm some specifics (see below

), and Moore’s consulting role on the PBS show Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr

 lends this twisted tale some credibility.

She details the story of a Utah couple, whom she calls Paula and Jeff, and their 21-year-old daughter (“Ashley”) who was conceived using the help of a fertility clinic. Paula and Ashley took a 23andMe genetic http://poussette-maxi-comparatif.fr test and then encouraged Jeff to do the same.

That’s when the family got the first sign that something had gone wrong: Jeff “showed no genetic match to his daughter,” Moore writes

, something that traditional paternity testing soon confirmed.

Using another genetic networking site, AncestryDNA, the family found “Cheryl,” who was related to Ashley but not to Paula. Cheryl responded to a message from Paula to offer some information: Her deceased cousin, Tom Lippert, had lived in Salt Lake City and been a sperm donor.