Black couple demand DNA test to show if Indian mom mistakenly received their embryo

Image used for illustrative purposes. Picture: iStock A bitter legal battle is brewing over an eight‑year‑old boy after a Ballito couple approached the High Court in Durban to compel an Indian woman to allow a DNA test, claiming the child was born from their embryo mistakenly given to her by a fertility clinic nine years ago. The woman initially resisted, arguing that the test was not in the child’s best interests and accusing the couple of harassment.

According to theSunday Times, the dispute began when a receptionist at the Care Clinic in Westville alerted the couple that one of their embryos may have been implanted in another patient. The couple, who underwent IVF in 2016 and believed all three embryos had been used, hired a private investigator. They discovered that the woman had given birth to a black boy in June 2017, just a month after their own daughter was born.

Court papers reveal the woman herself suspected an error when her son was born “with African features”. Judge Peter Olsen has now appointed a curator ad litem to represent the child and advise on his best interests before any DNA testing proceeds. The woman insists she is the only mother the boy knows and that custody should remain with her.

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The couple say they are not seeking parental rights at this stage but want legal certainty to pursue action against the clinic. In 2022, the High Court in Pretoria declared part of the Children’s Act, which regulates the parental rights of couples who conceive children through artificial insemination, unconstitutional. The ruling highlighted disputes over parentage, consent and the best interests of children, issues that echo the Ballito embryo mix‑up case.

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