While trying to objectivley look at both sides of the story, it's hard to not focus on the racial aspects. Yes, I can agree with the parents on one count: that the sperm mix-up should be investigated, so this type of error would not happen again. The company should be held accountable for their screw up. We also have to look at how the media has been portraying the couple. The problem with all of this is the fact that they are now baby Jessica's parents. The mere fact that there is a child involved in this fiasco is a tragedy. The parents should have to undergo counseling and it should be determined by the court if they are fit to keep her. This child should not have to be subjected to their damaging emotional behavior.

iambrowngirlspeak: www.iambrowngirlspeak.blogspot.com

But it's comming from you, Carmen VanKerckhove. You already agree that it's unacceptable for fertility clinics to falsely provide another man's sperm. Apparently that is trumped in this case by some obligation to racial sensitivity which flies in the face of women's reproductive rights.

And yes, race does matter in this case. You people are so blinded by some kakfa-esque version of political correctness that you fail to grasp the simple fact that the child is at a very young age going to realize that it is not the progney of its claimed parents. Children are not idiots. Had the sperm donor still been the wrong one, but instead been white, the child could at least be raised as their own. In this case that choice is taken away from the parents. In that sense it is a true horror, it is the worst screw-up that could happen at a fertility clinic.  

In fact, let's reverse the situation, you obviously suffer from some race induced myopia or a disdain for a white woman's right to choose. Consider instead a hopeful black couple who are surprised to have a white child (white, not albino). Turns out, the entire embryo was switched, not just the sperm. But since the genetic component should not matter to the father, why should it matter to the mother? Both the black parents should love their child equally. Or perhaps mothers are justified in caring about genetics, but not fathers? And of course, such a story should not get news coverage. That would be racist. The point being, a white child being born to two black parents is as much a genetic impossibility as a black child being born to two totally white parents.

I should say though, the kind of twisted political correctness exhibited here is great fuel for the fire of intolerance. It's just this sort of idiocy that scum like Rush Limbaugh love along with uncle-tom Republicans like Michael Steele, you guys make progressives look like baffoons.  

I just feel sorry for Baby Jessica having been born into a family that talks about their child as if she were a dog or a variety of tulip. Shouldn't people have to pass some sort of stability/emotional intelligence test before earning the right to procreate?
Are they suggesting they'd like to give Baby Jessica up for a lighter skinned model? Christ HRS should take her away from these psychopaths.
~cce

You really think the only reason this story is newsworthy is the racial angle? I mean, I think there's a pretty good story in the fact that the clinic screwed up and gave the wrong sperm. I think the fact the child is black only made it obvious. While I agree that the parents are screwing up their child BIG with this, I think it's unfair to suggest that nothing wrong happened. I just wish that these clinic mistakes could be settled quietly enough that the child never has to know she was a "mistake." That's it's own version of criminal, if you ask me.

And just to be clear, I do think the racial angle is contributing to the splash the story is getting. I just don't think race is the WHOLE story here.

I actually think the parents have a right to be upset that the clinic screwed up and swapped sperm samples somehow. I think they have as much right to be upset if the baby was the same race as them because now her dad is not her biological father and they wanted to have a baby TOGETHER. The problem was just easier to diagnose because of her different skin colour, but I don't think this means the couple are racist.

I think racism is one issue, and wanting to have a biological child or a child of your own race is a whole other issue and it's not fair assign the issue of racism to this case. How do you know the woman was horrified that a black sperm "infiltrated" her white womb? Maybe she was more upset that a stranger's sperm had infiltrated her womb; if it were me and I had taken marriage vows promising to be faithful to my husband for the rest of my life, I'd feel dirty that another man's sperm had been inside me. This wouldn't make me love the resulting child any less, as she is an innocent person involved in the whole case.

There are other factors at play when it comes to your own child - wanting your child to be biological and therefore the same race as you does not mean you don't like black people. It's a natural urge to have your own biological child that goes beyond logic and beliefs, and I can understand that a mother who wanted to have a child with her husband might feel like she'd been invaded, exploited, used and angry if she found out that a clinic had implanted a stranger's sperm inside her without her consent.

I do agree that it's unfortunate this child's history has come into the spotlight and I hope it is resolved quickly so that she won't be haunted by the memory as she grows up. But I don't blame the parents for wanting some sort of compensation for this situation.

wannabe hippie: I should have probably phrased that last sentence differently. Yes, any kind of sperm mixup is newsworthy. But I don't think this story would be making the front page and become the most emailed story on The New York Post web site were it not for the racial factor. As you can see from the posts I link to about the "miracle black and white twins" stories, people are absolutely fascinated by this kind of stuff.

Carmen Van Kerckhove
NEW DEMOGRAPHIC
carmen@newdemographic.com
www.newdemographic.com

New Demographic is an anti-racism training company that goes beyond diversity buzzwords to tackle the real issues behind race and racism.

smartl, I'm not really faulting the parents as much as I am critiquing the sensationalistic handling of this story. It's the media's focus that is "the horror of anonymous black sperm infiltrating a 'white' womb." I have seen so many stories of this nature - there's a definite pattern there.

Carmen Van Kerckhove
NEW DEMOGRAPHIC
carmen@newdemographic.com
www.newdemographic.com

New Demographic is an anti-racism training company that goes beyond diversity buzzwords to tackle the real issues behind race and racism.

I have mixed emotions about this story. First, I am alarmed that so much emphasis is placed on the skin color, and that the doctor assured the parents that her skin would lighten over time (as if lightening the skin equates to health or acceptability).

On the other hand, as someone who was inseminated yesterday with what I sure hope was my husbands sperm, I am furious that such a mix-up could happen! Sure, I would be willing to raise any child, but the whole point of paying so much $$$ for fertility treatment is so you can have a biological child. For whatever reason (evolutionary pull, maybe), there is an undeniable allure in having a biological child. Yes, adoption is wonderful and fulfilling, but these people did not sign up for adoption.

People shouldn't judge the parents for being alarmed. They signed on for a biological child. Who knows? They may have been perfectly willing to adopt a black baby, but they were expecting a biological relative. Giving birth to a white non-biological child would be just as upsetting, I'm sure.

The momma is Dominican. The ancestry is African and Spanish, so the mother isn't white in the first place. She could throw a dark baby anyway. She has issues and maybe child services should help place her baby with people who don't care she is brown. This will probably be a problem with this family for ever and can cause the child to suffer. I am sure there are plenty of IVF couples who would love this beautiful baby regardless.What would be funny if this couple could conceive naturally and the baby come out the same dark shade!

The baby was born nearly three years ago, and from the report in the NY Daily News, the parents said in the legal documents, that, "While we love Baby Jessica as our own, we are reminded of this terrible mistake each and every time we look at her."

Wow, talk about setting the kid up with a host of issues later in life. Angelina Jolie hasn't adopted a domestic kid yet, but I think Jessica should move to the top of the list if the parents are saying such things.

There are a whole host of risks involved in using science to do what isn't coming naturally. Introduce human error and the risks increase significantly. That said, the mother gave birth to a healthy child.

So while they're suing the clinic for malpractice, with which I have no problems, they may as well reallocate any gained funds towards Jessica's therapy bills in a few years.