MemeMachineGo!

Not long after I first heard of human chimeras, I learned of a case in which a woman was at risk of losing her children, and being prosecuted for fraud due to her being one.

Fairchild’s fight for her kids began when she was 26-years-old, unemployed and applying for public assistance in Washington state. Everyone in her family had to be tested to prove they were all related.

The Department of Social Services called Fairchild and told her to come in immediately. What Fairchild thought was a routine meeting with a social worker turned into an interrogation. The proud mother was suddenly a criminal suspect.

“As I sat down, they came up and shut the door, and they just went back and just started drilling me with questions like, ‘Who are you?’” Fairchild said. The DNA test results challenged everything she knew about her family. Yes, her boyfriend was the father of the children, and, yes, they were all related, according to the DNA, except for Fairchild. She was told she wasn’t the mother.

Fairchild was certain a mistake must have been made, but she recalled a social worker saying to her, “Nope. DNA is 100 percent foolproof and it doesn’t lie.”

Fairchild was not only denied government assistance for her young children, she was now suspected of possibly acting as a paid surrogate mother and committing welfare fraud. She was in danger of having her kids taken away for good. Fairchild said before she left, the social worker told her, “You know, we’re able to come get your kids at any time.” […]

The state was still so suspicious of Fairchild that when she gave birth to another child, a court officer stood in the delivery room to witness an immediate DNA test.

“They took DNA from the baby and myself right then and there, after birth, and it came back that there is no way possible that baby is mine,” Fairchild said.

Even though they’d witnessed the birth, officials believed she was acting as a surrogate, possibly bearing a child for money.

It’s fortunate for Fairchild that her lawyer happened upon an article about chimerism. And it’s interesting to note that DNA testing, considered a gold standard of evidence, doesn’t necessarily always prove what it seems to prove.