Swapped at birth case study and answers

Could you give up the child you thought was yours after you find out later that that child belongs to someone else?

Theashen pulled together this quick case last semester from a story he read where two babies in South Africa were accidentally swapped at birth. When the mistake was discovered one mother wanted to swap them back and one didn’t.

We noticed that on 60 Minutes on Sunday 21 June a very similar story is before the High Court in Australia right now.

See the 60 Minutes story summary below and then watch Theashen take you through the approaches to solving this case. He covers the relevant theory in E&G, Module 2 – Ethical dilemmas, from the CPA study guide.

(Summary supplied by TVTonight.com.au)

It is the impossible choice that no mother should ever have to face: Surrender the child you have lovingly raised for the last four years, to take back the child you originally gave birth to. It’s an unimaginable dilemma that in this day should be the stuff of fiction, but for two mothers this has become a reality after their babies were switched at birth. What makes this case even more perplexing is how the hospital could confuse the two babies – you see one is a boy, and the other is a girl. As Tara Brown discovers this Sunday, the heartbreak is insufferable for the two mothers involved, as one doesn’t believe the mix up, which means neither can agree on a way forward. Now it will be up to a High Court to decide which child should live with which mother.