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Sons I gave birth to are 'unrelated' to me
The Telegraph ^ | November 13, 2003 | Roger Highfield

Posted on 11/17/2003 10:20:10 AM PST by NYer

One human chimera came to light when a 52-year-old woman demanded an explanation from doctors after tests showed that two of her three grown-up sons were biologically unrelated to her.

Although the woman, "Jane", conceived them naturally with her husband, tests to see if she could donate a kidney suggested that somehow she had given birth to somebody else's children.

A study in the New England Journal of Medicine by Dr Margot Kruskall, of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in Boston, Massachusetts, showed that Jane is a chimera, a mixture of two individuals - non-identical twin sisters - whose cells intermingled in the womb and grew into a single body.

Dr Kruskall believes the most likely explanation is that Jane's mother conceived non-identical twin girls, who fused at an early stage of the pregnancy to form a single embryo, according to a report published today in New Scientist.

For some reason, cells from only one twin dominate in Jane's blood - used for tissue-typing. In her other tissues, however, including her ovaries, cells of both twins live amicably alongside each other, hence the apparently impossible genetics of her three sons.

One son came from an egg derived from the twin whose cells dominate Jane's blood, while his brothers came from eggs derived from the other twin's cells.

Around 30 similar instances of chimerism have been reported, and there are probably many more who will never discover their unusual origins. Most chimeras probably go through life unaware of their unusual constitution.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: ccrm; chimera; chimerism; genes; genetics; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; tetragametic; twin
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To: Tac12
"Question for the Christians (or Muslims or whatever) how many souls will go to heaven or hell? One or two or ...?"Don't know. I guess that's one of many reasons why He's God and I'm not.
41 posted on 11/17/2003 10:57:33 AM PST by MEGoody
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To: Tac12
None.
42 posted on 11/17/2003 10:57:53 AM PST by ASA Vet ("Right-wing Internet wacko")
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To: Tac12
Question for the Christians (or Muslims or whatever) how many souls will go to heaven or hell? One or two or ...?

Buy One...Get One Free...With your Plus/Advantage/Special Shopper card.
43 posted on 11/17/2003 10:58:02 AM PST by G L Tirebiter
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Comment #44 Removed by Moderator

To: NYer; chimera
ping
45 posted on 11/17/2003 10:58:18 AM PST by wardaddy (we must crush our enemies and make them fear us and sap their will to fight....all 2 billion of them)
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To: MEGoody
He?
46 posted on 11/17/2003 10:58:51 AM PST by stuartcr
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To: Age of Reason
Possible explanation for multiple personality disorders or schizophrenia?
47 posted on 11/17/2003 10:59:35 AM PST by TaxRelief
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To: Ichneumon
There's also a variation on this, called a "mosaic".

This I have seen in someone who was a Mosaic Downs baby.
48 posted on 11/17/2003 11:00:21 AM PST by armymarinemom (I Rocked the Cradle of Death from Above)
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To: NYer
"I once had an adult student whose neck suddenly swelled out, just below the jawbone. After conducting a series of tests, the doctor told her she would require surgery to remove a gill that had not dissolved during her fetal development."Um, there are no gills during development of the fetus. Whoever told you this either misunderstood or was pulling your leg.
49 posted on 11/17/2003 11:00:39 AM PST by MEGoody
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Comment #50 Removed by Moderator

To: N. Theknow

Bwahahahahahah....my first thought too.
51 posted on 11/17/2003 11:01:03 AM PST by SouthernFreebird
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To: mhking
I was wrong. That corpse that was mistaken for artwork for several days was not the most "Just Damn" article I've ever read. This is.

Qwinn
52 posted on 11/17/2003 11:01:53 AM PST by Qwinn
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To: wardaddy
I may be mixed up, but am not a monster (although some liberals think I am)...
53 posted on 11/17/2003 11:02:54 AM PST by chimera
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To: MineralMan
I don't suppose you'd care to summarize this "simple explanation"? I don't see how she could be biologically unrelated to her biological sister's biological children.
54 posted on 11/17/2003 11:02:59 AM PST by Sloth ("I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!" -- Jacobim Mugatu, 'Zoolander')
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To: wardaddy
Think we ought to ping beavus?
55 posted on 11/17/2003 11:03:31 AM PST by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
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To: NYer
What I would like to know,is, how do the 'intelligent design' people explain anomolies like this?

WHEREAS I believe God "Intelligently designed" the entire universe all the way down to the ways that 'matter' interacts on an atomic and subatomic level (and at some point instilled within man an immortal soul making him most profoundly different than animals on that level) -

- the 'intelligent design' folks, per se, seem to contend that nature somehow obeys a different and most obscure set of physical laws when dealing *only* with the flesh (corporal level) of man ...

56 posted on 11/17/2003 11:03:34 AM PST by _Jim ( <--- Rush speaks on gutless 'Liberalism' (RealAudio files))
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To: stuartcr
"He?"

Yes.

57 posted on 11/17/2003 11:03:38 AM PST by MEGoody
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To: TaxRelief
Possible explanation for multiple personality disorders or schizophrenia?

Basically pretty much all Multiple Personality Disorders are people who suffered horrific continuous sexual/physical abuse as children.

Schizophrenia isn't like MPD at all, really, and isn't "multiple people" or "multiple brains" or anything like that.

58 posted on 11/17/2003 11:04:22 AM PST by John H K
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To: Sloth
"I don't suppose you'd care to summarize this "simple explanation"? I don't see how she could be biologically unrelated to her biological sister's biological children."

I would -hope- a paternity (maternity?) test is able to differentiate a child-mother relationship from a child-aunt relationship. It's not like no one ever cheated with a spouse's sibling.

Qwinn
59 posted on 11/17/2003 11:06:01 AM PST by Qwinn
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To: _Jim
"the 'intelligent design' folks, per se, seem to contend that nature somehow obeys a different and most obscure set of physical laws when dealing *only* with the flesh (corporal level) of man ..."

What physical laws do you think they believe are different for humans?

60 posted on 11/17/2003 11:08:22 AM PST by MEGoody
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