Paternity test: Black couple have white baby

08 Jul 2017

Paternity testing is pretty much the standard means of confirming whether an alleged father is truly the biological of a child; fathers often seek this test when they think their wife might have cheated, told them “I’m carrying your baby” but the father in question might have his doubts. This was not quite the case when a black woman, Ethelbert Ofor, who like her husband is also black, gave birth to a white baby. For many fathers, this would have triggered more than just a suspicion of infidelity- it would appear to be incriminating evidence of an extra marital affair.

Unlike most fathers however, Ethelbert did not run out to get a DNA testing kit for a paternity test; for him, this white baby was undoubtedly his and the fact that it was white was just a little trick that our genes can play in very rare and unexpected cases. Another couple, Ben and Angela have also been through a similar experience, their son, Nmcachi Ihegboro, was not only white but much to the surprise of his parents, blonde with blue eyes. Moreover, after examing and tracing genealogy they found they had no white ancestry.

From a genetic perspective, scientists know very little regarding which genes are involved in such cases and they are carrying out a number of DNA tests with Nmcachi’s DNA hoping to discover which genes might be activated and how such phenomena occur. There is much research going on about our junk DNA, the DNA which accounts for 98% of our genetic make-up and which until recently was thought to have little use. The first thought to spring to mind that would be a simple clear-cut conclusion to the case is that in both cases the children are albinos; doctors have however excluded this possibility as the white colour is not due to lack of pigmentation and their eyes are also coloured (typically albinos would have red eyes).

Ethelbert says he was very happy at when he says his son for the first time; doctors expected him to be shocked but he was not. He talks of a cousin back in Africa who is also white but born to black parents.
Elated by the birth of his son and aware of the surprises our genes can bring, he did not want a paternity analysis to be carried out. Such cases can and will occur when there are mutations in the genes and dormant genes are activated; how exactly this happens and which genes are responsible will take time and research but we will likely eventually have an answer. A Paternity test is accurate and reliable and such cases as this are, luckily, rare.