DNA tests are all fun and games until you discover you have unwittingly slept with your half-brother. That’s what happened to this Victoria Hill, who has - either bravely or bizarrely - decided to share her story. The 39-year-old social worker sent her DNA off to 23andMe genomics company, thinking it would be interesting to find out more about her background.
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This is not the first scandal 23andMe has caused as the company faced a recent data leak, but it certainly brings the all-revealing element of this process to the forefront. This Connecticut woman discovered the truth about her highschool boyfriend, but that’s not even the half of it. Here’s the whole story.
A doctor’s dirty secret
The test results revealed that a married man, Burton Caldwell, had fathered over 20 other children. However, it turns out that the story is even weirder than that: he wasn’t a sperm donor. He was the doctor helping Hill’s mother - and many other mothers-to-be - to get pregnant. Without their consent, he used his own sperm to impregnate his patients. Victoria’s mum Maralee believed what he told her: that the sample had come from an anonymous medical student.
Hill shared her story at a 20-year highschool reunion. Her highschool boyfriend knew that his parents had also conceived via a donor. They also used the same doctor as Hill’s mother. You know where this is going. Having heard Hill’s story, the man took a test and discovered that he was indeed one of the 20 plus children fathered by this creepy doctor.
Hill’s half-brother and ex-boyfriend
Hill got a text from her ex: ‘You are my sister’. She explained:
It has me look back at my whole high school experience through a totally different lens. It tarnishes the whole thing.
I'll just put it out there, I was intimate with my half brother.
Of course, the pair didn’t know, and Hill said she felt ‘traumatized’ when she found out. Hers is considered an extreme case, explained Indiana University law professor Jody Madeira, given that the doctor’s lie led to the first instance of a ‘confirmed case of someone actually dating’ and sleeping with their half-sibling as a result of fertility fraud.
Hill has since discovered that she went to primary school with another half-sibling and regularly visited a deli owned by twins who also share the same father. She explained that these revelations have truly shaken her:
Now I'm looking at pictures of people thinking, well, if he could be my sibling, anybody could be my sibling.
It was like my entire life just came to a screeching halt.
Hill considered taking the doctor to court, but fertility fraud is only illegal in 12 states, and Connecticut is not one of them. She and two other woman who were conceived in the same dodgy way by the same dishonest doctor are campaigning for stricter legislation and legal protection regarding this misconduct.
Read more:
⋙ Couple gave baby up for adoption after deciding they didn’t want her
⋙ Bride discovers horrific secret about groom on day of wedding, what she did next will shock you
Sources used:
UNILAD:Woman took a DNA test and discovers she dated her half-brother in high school
Mirror: 'I unknowingly slept with my half brother in high school and I feel traumatised'
