Cock up in NI fertility clinic leaves white couple with mixed race baby

Run_to_da_hills

Excuse the pun in the title

A white couple are suing a fertility clinic in the North after an IVF blunder left them with a mixed race baby, it emerged today

Although they requested 'white Caucasian' donor sperm, the woman was fertilized with 'Caucasian cape coloured' sperm and gave birth to a dark-skinned boy, now aged 10.

The man and wife, who wish to remain anonymous, claim their lives have been devastated by suggestions of extra marital affairs.

They are seeking damages against the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust in a case expected to begin in September.

Surely in the North of Ireland they should be more concerned whether the sperm was "Catholic" or "Protestant". :pac:

phasers

The child is ten now? Did they just notice or something?

seamus

"I hate you so much son, I need to sue someone else".

There's a double-murder-suicide in the making right there.

TheZohanS

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Excuse the pun in the title

A white couple are suing a fertility clinic in the North after an IVF blunder left them with a mixed race baby, it emerged today

That's what they get for going to a clinic with Irish Volunteer Force employees. :pac:

themadchef

They will sue because they can, and will no doubt get loads of money for it.

I don't see why though. Donor sperm, you're taking a chance. So the colour of the childs skin is different? Big deal. You're being given the gift of having a child, what if the child actually had something wrong with them, or turned out to be disabled or handicapped in some way, would you then say "this isnt what i ordered" madness IMO.

No one gets to order naturally, skin tones, hair colour, sex. anything. You get what you get!

mike65

Well of all the parts of Western Europe you prolly don't want an error like that to happen Northern Ireland is that part

WindSock

I'll take him. Do you have him in blonde?

Interceptor

Some people just don't know when they have it good. Couples all over Ireland have adopted foreign babies just to be able to raise a child as their own - and this pair are freaking over skin colour?

Good grief...

'cptr

seanybiker

The child must have some great self esteem. Wonder what he will think when is old enough to understand his parents sued because he was black.

Is kinda funny though.

WindSock

What the hell is cape colour?

Run_to_da_hills

WindSock wrote: »

What the hell is cape colour?

Dath Dubh i guess

ShooterSF

themadchef wrote: »

They will sue because they can, and will no doubt get loads of money for it.

I don't see why though. Donor sperm, you're taking a chance. So the colour of the childs skin is different? Big deal. You're being given the gift of having a child, what if the child actually had something wrong with them, or turned out to be disabled or handicapped in some way, would you then say "this isnt what i ordered" madness IMO.

No one gets to order naturally, skin tones, hair colour, sex. anything. You get what you get!

Well they kind of do. I have never seen two white people have a black kid naturally.
If the fertility clinic agreed to give them a white baby then they will be in breach of their agreement. They probably never made, or were asked for, guarantees on the kids health. If they felt they couldn't make the promise they shouldn't have.
They made a promise. They didn't live up to it.

brianthebard

themadchef wrote: »

They will sue because they can, and will no doubt get loads of money for it.

I don't see why though. Donor sperm, you're taking a chance. So the colour of the childs skin is different? Big deal. You're being given the gift of having a child, what if the child actually had something wrong with them, or turned out to be disabled or handicapped in some way, would you then say "this isnt what i ordered" madness IMO.

No one gets to order naturally, skin tones, hair colour, sex. anything. You get what you get!

Since when do you pay for gifts?

ParkRunner

+1 on the inevitable inferiority complex! The kid might get Michael Jackson syndrome anyway and go white all by himself!

pwd

If you see a white couple with a half caste child, you know they are not both parents of the child.
If you know the couple have been together longer than the age of the child, most people will conclude the woman blatantly cuckolded her husband, and that he must have accepted that and is now raising her child nonethless.
It wouldn't be nice to be seen like that. Neither would it be nice to go into details about IVF with people, just so they don't see them like that.

This stuff is very straightforward. Stop being preachy and self-righteous and pretending it doesn't make any difference. It would be just the same if it as a black couple with a half-caste child.

WindSock

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Dath Dubh i guess

Ghoirm you mean. Fear Dubh is the divil in these here parts

themadchef

brianthebard wrote: »

Since when do you pay for gifts?

Everyday, if you work with a guy who thinks he's Gods gift to the female of the species

2 stroke

They should just give back the child and claim a refund.

My name is URL

It's all fun & games till someone gives birth to a United Colors of Bennetton ad

Run_to_da_hills

2 stroke wrote: »

They should just give back the child and claim a refund.

They couldn't because it is out of date. :pac:

jbrst

ShooterSF wrote: »

Well they kind of do. I have never seen two white people have a black kid naturally.
If the fertility clinic agreed to give them a white baby then they will be in breach of their agreement. They probably never made, or were asked for, guarantees on the kids health. If they felt they couldn't make the promise they shouldn't have.
They made a promise. They didn't live up to it.

It does happen, tho very very rarely. Something to do with black genes way back in the family tree popping out all of a sudden. Be warned :eek:

Carlow52

ShooterSF wrote: »

Well they kind of do. I have never seen two white people have a black kid naturally.
If the fertility clinic agreed to give them a white baby then they will be in breach of their agreement. They probably never made, or were asked for, guarantees on the kids health. If they felt they couldn't make the promise they shouldn't have.
They made a promise. They didn't live up to it.

Since when is color part of health?
[Pls tick the RAL code nearest the color you want:) FFS]

Two songs occur
http://www.jacquedee63.com/blackisblack.html

http://www.procolharum.com/w/w9901.htm

javaboy

I'd say the stick and gossip a same colour couple could get over a mixed colour baby could be quite harsh. People can be very nasty over stuff like this: accusations of affairs, cuckoldry etc. Plus they probably wanted to keep the nature of the conception a secret from most people. Now they can either grin and bear the gossip or tell people it was IVF.

They probably have suffered a fair bit over it and part of me says yeah the fertility clinic screwed up and should pay something (although not a whole lot tbh).

But at the end of it all, there's a kid involved. As parents the child's welfare should be paramount. This case can't be helping his self-esteem in any way.

silverharp

But was the donor protestant or catholic? also Is the IVF linked to the UVF?

Harpie

That's what she said happened.

It's the postman's.

galwayrush

The thread title says cock up, there wasn't any cock involved.;)

Prof.Badass

galwayrush wrote: »

The thread title says cock up, there wasn't any cock involved.;)

so you think the sperm just magiced itself into the petri dish?

positron

I read that news item and I am a bit offended by their attitude of not going out with him anymore etc.

While I can understand how they would feel (and rightly so) the clinic should be held responsible, but I get the feeling that they are trying to make a better case by aligning the racial insults like 'p**i' or 'n****r' their son has to face as 'caused by clinic's cock up etc. . That is the society they are in, and if they are 'hurt' by it, they should think about the hardships what thousands of foreign looking children (mixed parents, adopted etc) faces every day! If they are bothered about it, they should do something about it - like sue the little boll*x that's giving him the hard time (or their parents and/or school). I don't think the boy is going to feel particularly great about the fact that the parents can't stand the 'public seeing them together etc'.

In fact, if they are really bothered about seen with a boy of different color, they probably don't deserve him. I am sure there's plenty of Irish couples out there who wouldn't have a problem to take him as their son.

markok84

IBTKC*



*in before the keyboard cat.

WindSock

WindSock wrote: »

What the hell is cape colour?

In Cape town during the apartheid they called mixed race people "Cape Coloureds" White caucasian and asian cape coloureds are the usual.

minidazzler

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Surely in the North of Ireland they should be more concerned whether the sperm was "Catholic" or "Protestant". :pac:

Why would you presume all Northerners are worried about that?

Red Sleeping Beauty

They should've sold him to Madonna , she was in the market there a while ago.

smellslikeshoes

minidazzler wrote: »

Why would you presume all Northerners are worried about that?

Not hard to see it was a tongue in cheek comment :rolleyes:

Pherekydes

pwd wrote: »

Stop being preachy and self-righteous and pretending it doesn't make any difference.

It's not being preachy and self-righteous. My partner and I were discussing this case last night with our 11 year-old daughter and after 15 minutes of really patient explanation, including the part about the couple already having a white daughter by the same donor, she concluded that it was still not a problem, and you know what, it isn't. The only people who see a problem are those who look at the child and define him by just one quality: skin colour.

SV

phasers wrote: »

The child is ten now? Did they just notice or something?

I was born looking the same as any other white baby.
Skin tone only started changing colour around when I was 8 or 9.


Just saying..

Hydroquinone

According to an article I read this weekend about this case, the parents hadn't told anyone that they were using an IVF service. So no one would have known that they had, if this child had been the same colour as his Ma and Da.
That made me think; I wonder is it common for people who babies via IVF to not let on?
And whatever about not letting on to friends and families, how or when would you tell your own child that he or she wasn't biologically yours, I wonder? Would you tell them at all? I bet some people don't.

Scawgeen

galwayrush wrote: »

The thread title says cock up, there wasn't any cock involved.;)

A new breakthrough in medical science we don't know about ????

ShooterSF

Pherekydes wrote: »

It's not being preachy and self-righteous. My partner and I were discussing this case last night with our 11 year-old daughter and after 15 minutes of really patient explanation, including the part about the couple already having a white daughter by the same donor, she concluded that it was still not a problem, and you know what, it isn't. The only people who see a problem are those who look at the child and define him by just one quality: skin colour.

Ok, but it is a problem. They asked for a guarantee from the clinic. The clinic gave then that guarantee and then dropped the ball. After that the morality of the issue is filler.

pwd

Pherekydes wrote: »

It's not being preachy and self-righteous. My partner and I were discussing this case last night with our 11 year-old daughter and after 15 minutes of really patient explanation, including the part about the couple already having a white daughter by the same donor, she concluded that it was still not a problem, and you know what, it isn't. The only people who see a problem are those who look at the child and define him by just one quality: skin colour.

Are you saying that your 11 y/o daughter told you it wasn't a problem? Tbh, when I was 11 I'd have thought the same way.
It's not about defining someone by their skin colour. I thought I made that clear in my post. It's about the clear evidence that the parents are not both the biological parents of the child, observable to all. This gives the appearance of infidelity, which requires a breach of privacy to dispel.
It also means the child has to know from the start that his father is not his biological father. Maybe they would have liked to leave off telling him that until he was a bit older.

[Insert Me Myself & Irene clip here]