Family finds out because of clinic’s insemination switch, dad isn’t biological father of daughter
This is one of the most disturbing stories to come out in recent days. KUTV CBS 2 News has an exclusive story about a now-closed clinic in Midvale, Utah that switched sperm samples, and the family that learned, because of said switch, their daughter is not the actual biological child of her father. And, worse of all, it seems like it wasn’t simple human error.
The eventual paternity discovery started out as a fun exercise for the family, which was unnamed in the piece. They went to a website that, for $99, allows one to discover their “ancestral origins and lineage with a personalized analysis of your DNA.” When they got the results back, they saw something startling: the father and his daughter did not share any DNA whatsoever.
Maybe the first reaction for many would be thinking it was an error on part of the website. But, the mother and father did not have that luxury because of the way their daughter was conceived: artificial insemination. They wondered if there had been a mistake made at Reproductive Medical Technologies Inc. (RMTI), the clinic they had used to help them have a child, back in 1992. Their research led them to believe it’s possible it was no mistake.
The mother’s research led her to the late Thomas R. Lippert, a man distantly related to her huband, who had worked at RMTI. Lippert’s mother agreed to give a DNA sample. And the results? Confirmation that this RMTI employee was the daughter’s true biological father. The mother can remember Lippert from her trips to RMTI, “he seemed friendly and was very proud of all those pictures almost seemed like a brag board up there, those w ere the children that he had helped people have.” Now, one has to wonder if he had more of a connection to those children than previously thought.
Time for an understatement: Lippert was no angel. KUTV has more information on his past, but suffice to say he went to prison for kidnapping a college student. However, since he is now dead, there is no immediate way to find out whether the sperm sample switch was committed more than once.
For more information, including a statement from the University of Utah and their connection to this sordid tale, you should make a point of checking out KUTV’s story. It’s chilling.
More info: KUTV
