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icyfroth · ‎12-01-2014

A 21-year-old woman conceived by IVF has discovered that the man she thought was her biological father had his sperm switched with someone else's – a convicted kidnapper.

Annie Branum and her parents, Pam and John thought it would be "fun" to undertake an online DNA test.

The results left the family shattered.

DNA showed that Annie was in no way related to the man who she had always thought was her father.

"I felt my stomach just drop," her mother, Pam, told KUTV.

"I was shaking," Pam said as she told her husband the news.

"I said John, you're not being to believe this – it's showing that you and Annie are not related."

The Branum's visited an IVF clinic in 1992 after having troubling conceiving.

The procedure was a success and nine months later Annie was born.

The family have now discovered that Annie was in fact fathered by Thomas R. Lippert, a technician who worked at the clinic.

Lippert, a former professor who passed away in 1997, served two years in jail for kidnapping a student and performing "love experiments" on her.

Lippert's widow, who has chosen not to reveal her first name, said she was not surprised by the revelations: "I think, because Tom and I didn't have any kids, he wanted to have lots of kids out there."

Pam remembered seeing Thomas Lippert during her many visits to at the fertility clinic.

"He was at the front desk a lot of the time and kept a stack of baby pictures behind the desk. He seemed friendly and was very proud of all those pictures almost seemed like a brag board up there, those were the children that he had helped people have."

But Pam now suspects those children indicate that Thomas had swapped his sperm with many other couples who visited the clinic.

The revelation has left Annie questioning just who she is.

"I thought I was this person, [a combination] of my mum and my dad. But now my dad is not my biological father. Who am I? Who am I?"

Despite that, Annie has vowed not to let the shocking news change her life.

"I understand that this happened to me, and there is nothing I can do to change it. So, why should I live my life any different knowing this has happened?"

Pam has now set up a website, Was Your Child Fathered by Thomas Lippert, to help other families who suspect Lippert may have also tampered with their samples.

Link To Article

a)Convicted of kidnaping a student to do "love experiments" ?

b) He got a job in an IVF clinic? smileysurprised:

c) The comments on the article are interesting!

amber-eyed-girl · ‎12-01-2014

This does not in any way surprise me, unfortunately I do not think he would be the only one in the 100s of clinics out there.

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Buttercup: You mock my pain! Man in Black: Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.

patchoo78 · ‎12-01-2014

I saw a movie once where the owner of the sperm bank was swapping the sperm with his own.. He was found out when all the kids who had been the result of artificial insemination had inherited the same genetic eye disorder known as Strabismus... May or may not have been based on a true story.

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You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means

azureline** · ‎12-01-2014

Annie Branum and her parents, Pam and John thought it would be "fun" to undertake an online DNA test.

really? odd definition of fun............

bluecat*dancing · ‎12-01-2014

I think I've seen that movie. It is the one I'm thinking of it had Melissa Gilbert [Little House on the Prairie] and was based on a true story.

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"There is nothing more; but I want nothing more." Christopher Hitchins

azureline** · ‎12-01-2014

The Baby Maker?

He did more than that though.

***super_nova*** · ‎13-01-2014

@azureline** wrote:
Annie Branum and her parents, Pam and John thought it would be "fun" to undertake an online DNA test.
really? odd definition of fun............

I thought that the "Ancestry" test is done to determine from what ethnic group your ancestors came from, not your paternity. How would such a test show that Thomas Lippert was the father is definitely weird. I mean paternity tests do not tell you who the father is; they tell you whether the man whose sample you submitted could be your father or not.

I am sure that such things happened, but this story does not make much sense.

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Voltaire: “Those Who Can Make You Believe Absurdities, Can Make You Commit Atrocities” .

polocross58 · ‎13-01-2014

Quote: '

A major shortcoming of the genetic tests offered by the Google-backed company 23andMe is not necessarily their accuracy, but rather the limited information they use to evaluate a person's lifetime risk of complex diseases, experts say.

Recently, the Food and Drug Administration sent a letter to 23andMe telling the company to stop marketing its DNA testing kits, because the kits require FDA approval, which the company had not obtained. The letter emphasizes the need for 23andMe to prove that their tests are accurate.

"FDA is concerned about the public health consequences of inaccurate results from the [Personal Genome Service] device; the main purpose of compliance with FDA's regulatory requirements is to ensure that the tests work," the letter reads, referring to 23andMe's genetic testing product.' end quote

http://www.livescience.com/41534-23andme-direct-to-consumer-genetic-test-shortcomings.html

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False DNA test led father to reject daughter

Quote: '

A DNA testing firm used by the Child Support Agency has admitted incorrectly telling a man that he was not the father of his daughter.

Cellmark Diagnostics, one of seven Government-approved laboratories performing up to 10,000 paternity tests each a year, says staff "misinterpreted" the results in the case'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1322077/False-DNA-test-led-father-to-reject-daughter.html

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DNA Paternity Tests sometimes wrong

Quote: ' Popular belief is that DNA testing is 100% accurate. Whether used to determine the father of a child or pinpoint an individual who committed a crime, the results of DNA testing are widely considered infallible. I’ll tell you the truth. The accuracy of a DNA test depends greatly on how the samples are collected, how they are tested, and how they are reported. The results of a DNA test are sometimes misleading or wrong.

http://www.dnatesting.com/blog/dnatesting/2014/01/dna-paternity-tests-sometimes-wrong/

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Chimerism

Quote: ' There was a case, not too long ago, when a blood test showed that a woman, and the children she had actually born, were not mother and child.

This woman continued to undergo blood tests trying to prove that she was the mother of her own children, even when one such test showed that she was not the mother of the child she had just birthed.

Either this woman was undergoing some fairly advanced medical procedures on her own, or something was up.

Eventually it was found that this woman had had a fraternal twin. She didn't remember it, because it was while they were both basically blastocysts when that twin had ceased to be.

Her twin had been absorbed into her, and the combined tissue created a composite body, despite having different DNA.

A tissue sample taken from the woman's thyroid later showed that she was the children's biological mother. It's just that her ovaries belonged to that long-lost twin.

Another woman found out that her children weren't carrying her DNA when she needed a kidney transplant and neither was a match. Again, her ovaries were made from different DNA. Both mothers were chimeras.'

http://io9.com/5911357/theres-a-good-chance-youre-a-human-chimera

There was a case in Ireland some years ago where a woman was to undergo some critical surgery. During the preparations, it was discovered the woman had 'male' blood. She'd been married and given birth to children, but she had 'male blood', apparently.

The mystery was resolved when it was learned the woman was a chimera. Her twin brother had been absorbed into her body while they were both in the womb. Her blood supply was what remained of her twin brother, effectively