Monday, March 9, 2009

Switched at Birth

Here's an interesting story:
As a child, Fred George never fit in. His Lebanese family was a dark-haired, outgoing bunch, while he was a shy blond. Across town, another boy, Jim Churchman -- the only brunette in his fair Scottish family -- felt the same way. "People teased me when I was younger," says George. "They said: 'You're a Churchman' ... but I didn't want to know."

What was suspicion became truth. At the age of 57, long after George had moved to the U.S., the two men finally had a DNA test and discovered they'd been switched at birth. Born just two hours apart on Christmas Eve in 1946 in Dunedin, New Zealand, they'd been placed in the wrong bassinets at the hospital. This week George flew back to New Zealand to surprise the mother who never had a chance to raise him, Helen Churchman, on her 82nd birthday. "I feel I've two families," George said. "And I've been so lucky to have had two mothers."
Click here to read more. The article also references another story about Czechoslovakian parents who decided to keep thier "switched" babies after the mistake was revealed 10 months after birth.

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