S. African court to decide fate of girls "swapped at birth"

[Prince Ikari]

The North Gauteng High Court should return the swapped children to their rightful biological mothers. The mother who does not want to swap the children back has no real legal right to that child since that child was never hers to begin with. The hospital should certainly be held responsible for this enormous mess they have created - as in paying the legal fees of the custody battle ensuing and the years of therapy that both the mothers and the children are going to need as a result of there negligence. Stories like this one should never be happening in the first place. But I guess the moral of the story is to demand the hospitals perform paternity tests from now on before you leave the hospital to make sure you actually have your child and not someone else's child instead.

[xdivision_whitey]

Prince Ikari

The North Gauteng High Court should return the swapped children to their rightful biological mothers. The mother who does not want to swap the children back has no real legal right to that child since that child was never hers to begin with. The hospital should certainly be held responsible for this enormous mess they have created - as in paying the legal fees of the custody battle ensuing and the years of therapy that both the mothers and the children are going to need as a result of there negligence. Stories like this one should never be happening in the first place. But I guess the moral of the story is to demand the hospitals perform paternity tests from now on before you leave the hospital to make sure you actually have your child and not someone else's child instead.

However you don't wait till the kid is age four to do it. Like you said a slew of problems. Number one will be that one parent is willing to traumatize both kids just for child support. Second is all the therapies which in the long run will cost more money no one really wanting.

[Prince Ikari]

xdivision_whitey

Prince Ikari

The North Gauteng High Court should return the swapped children to their rightful biological mothers. The mother who does not want to swap the children back has no real legal right to that child since that child was never hers to begin with. The hospital should certainly be held responsible for this enormous mess they have created - as in paying the legal fees of the custody battle ensuing and the years of therapy that both the mothers and the children are going to need as a result of there negligence. Stories like this one should never be happening in the first place. But I guess the moral of the story is to demand the hospitals perform paternity tests from now on before you leave the hospital to make sure you actually have your child and not someone else's child instead.

However you don't wait till the kid is age four to do it. Like you said a slew of problems. Number one will be that one parent is willing to traumatize both kids just for child support. Second is all the therapies which in the long run will cost more money no one really wanting.

That can be blamed on the hospital. They should have informed the mothers immediately when they realized that the switch had occurred and not waited until one of the mothers had to accidentally find out on her own that her child was not actually hers. But the mother still has a legal right to have her biological child returned to her. If I were in her position I certainly would want my actual child back too. No doubt there is going to be trauma as a result of all of this. But at the same time you cannot just expect both of the mothers to just ignore what happened and raise the others child as if they had never been made aware of the switch in the first place. This has all passed the point of no return. The lives of all four of them are forever changed. If the mother who wants her biological child back does not get custody of her then she will obviously be devastated and resent having to raise the child of the other woman. The other woman seems content for some odd reason with keeping the children switched. The unwanted daughter will probably grow up with a ton of resentment and both will eventually have important questions about all of this once they are older.