Just in time for Valentine’s Day comes one of the worst dating horror stories ever… and it all started with a DNA test.
Victoria Hill was concerned about a health issue which was apparently genetic — but was confused when her parents had never had any symptoms. So she got a 23andMe DNA test, and got the second biggest shock of her life. She had a couple dozen siblings she never knew about!
No, her dad wasn’t an ’80s version of Nick Cannon. It turned out she wasn’t her father’s daughter at all! Her parents had gone to a fertility doctor in the ’80s, and turns out the doc had used his own sperm! ICK! This was not something her mother was aware of — and definitely not something she consented to! Sadly this doctor, a guy named Burton Caldwell, was apparently one of those creeps who used his own sperm for as many pregnancies as he could.
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Victoria learned the shocking truth from some of her newly discovered siblings, who had already put all this together — and found her after her DNA test. There are 22 of them at last count. Crazy. If you’re thinking this story sounds familiar, unfortunately you’re right. There have been several of these doctors who have done this over the years, decided they’d just donate their own genes, whether mothers wanted them or not. So gross.
CNN found as part of their nationwide investigation that most states, including Connecticut where Victoria is from, don’t even have a law against this fertility fraud, as it’s known. Doctors just get away with it — and often continue practicing even after being caught! Heck, it’s been a known problem so long they did a Law & Order episode about it in the ’90s! Scary stuff…
But it gets worse. Remember we said that was the second biggest shock of Victoria’s life? And that this was a dating horror story?
Yeah, unfortunately Victoria learned one of her unknown half-siblings was… her high school boyfriend! Yes, for real! She told CNN:
“I was traumatized by this. Now I’m looking at pictures of people thinking, well, if he could be my sibling, anybody could be my sibling.”
Not only did she date this guy for a considerable amount of time, they had a sexual relationship! She slept with her half-brother! And she says she very easily could have married him if things had gone slightly differently! Apparently this is the first documented case of two fertility fraud siblings unknowingly hooking up. But seriously, how the heck is this legal?!
Learn Victoria’s full story — and more about how common fertility fraud is — HERE!
[Image via CNN.]
