Baby being swapped

[Bubbles]

.

[Hope]

It appears, if today's BBC news is correct, that the reverse swap has already occurred.  I haven't found an electronic report yet, though.

[floo]

I heard it on the news, how traumatic for all concerned!

[Harrowby Hall]

There was a case in France about six months ago about two young women who discovered that they had been swapped at birth. IIRC a dna test showed that one was not related to her parents and this unravelled an error made at the maternity hospital. Apparently, one of the girls looked nothing like her parents and there was much wagging of tongues!

I think the hospital had to pay a huge sum in damages but that both victims had come to terms with the error and (I'm hazy about this) both were thrilled to have two families in which they belonged.

[Udayana]

There is big difference between such a swap occurring by accident and one where this is done for payment. I guess someone with a baby with a medical issues might want to swap for one without - but swapping your baby because it is too dark?

Exactly how much more is a light baby worth more than a darkie? 

Possibly people with non-white babies should be automatically entitled to compensation!!

[jeremyp]

Can somebody explain how this baby swapping scam is supposed to work.  If I'm a baby trafficker and somebody paid me to procure a baby, I would not find a spare baby (or kidnap a baby) and then swap it for somebody else's baby before giving my "customer" the second baby.  That's introducing an extra link in the chain which leads to an increased chance of discovery (as happened in this case). 

What was the motive for the baby traffickers to do the swap when they already had a baby?

[Udayana]

Maybe they needed a lighter baby for white parents?

- Actually we probably don't yet have the correct facts about this story.

[jeremyp]

Maybe they needed a lighter baby for white parents?

- Actually we probably don't yet have the correct facts about this story.

Where did they get the baby they swapped in from?

Disclaimer:  I'm not trying to be adversarial, I genuinely have trouble understanding what went on here.

[Rhiannon]

They are saying that the second baby was born in the same hospital on the same day.

[Udayana]

It is being put down to a simple mix-up. The families have come to an arrangement with the hospital and signed gagging orders, according to the Times.

[Rhiannon]

The mix-up is more plausible given they traced the 'real' baby through records of babies born on the same day in the same hospital.