The Prince And The Pauper

Young children who become resentful and angry against their parents because of a punishment meted out in an effort to teach them to become responsible for themselves, often imagine themselves to have been given to the wrong parents. Their real parents, the children fantasize, would never punish them. Their real parents would be wealthy, perhaps of royal or patrician stock, and the child, had it been delivered to the right parents and not switched at birth, would be able to have anything it wanted.

Life can be so cruel, these children think, weeping in anguish over their sad lot in life.

Of course, these are momentary, childish aberrations. We get over these things. We are guided by our parents and become reasonable human beings eventually; at least most of us do. We set aside that kind of fruitless day-dreaming, and realize, as we grow older that we're unfair to our parents to value them so slightly that we would prefer to have been raised by others. And we adjust to life and make the most of it with our genetic endowments and the firm guidance of our parents. And luck.

There have been books written about just such scenarios, however, children separated at birth, by some unaccountable and unfortunate error, from their genetic parents. Taken away by others to become their own, unaware that an exchange had been made. Apart from literature tackling the subject, there have been documented instances when just such occurrences became reality. And one such occurrence was recently revealed to have taken place, in Japan.

When three brothers of a wealthy family, in adulthood and after the deaths of their parents, thought how unlike them their older brother seemed. They discussed the matter and prevailed upon him to agree to take a DNA test. And they discovered that what they had imagined was in actual fact true; their older brother didn't share any of their DNA, so obviously an error had occurred. They went back to the hospital where he had been born in Tokyo in 1953 to check records.

At the time two women had given birth to two little boys. A nurse took the babies away to bathe them, and then she exchanged the clothing that each had been wearing, and returned the babies to their mothers. But the nurse returned the babies to the wrong mothers who evidently did not themselves realize they were given the wrong babies. One of the mothers was reported to have noted later that her baby was wearing the 'wrong' clothing.

And now we know exactly why those plastic bracelets with identifying information are always placed on the ankles of newborns. In fact, anyone entering hospital for any manner of procedure is given one of those bracelets.

The families think the mothers believed something was wrong

The men are now 60 years of age. The child born to wealthy parents was given to a couple who lived in poverty and as a result, so did he. He lived with those parents not his genetic parents, along with siblings whom he loved. The father of the family died when the boy was only two years of age, and the family lived thereafter on welfare, barely able to cope. He he became older he studied at night school enabling him to work day shifts in a factory. And eventually he became a full-time truck driver.

He never married. He is emotionally close to his 'brothers', three other men who are not his birth brothers but with whom he lived as a child. And he contributes to their care and their upkeep. The other infant, who was the genetic offspring of the poor parents, grew up in wealth and with opportunity, attending the best schools, and ending up head of a property company. He too had three brothers, who also work for major companies.

His three younger brothers had suspected that because he didn't resemble them or their parents in any way, there might be a possibility he was not really their birth brother. And when tests confirmed that, and when they found evidence at the hospital that led them to a search to discover the whereabouts of their real brother, there was a reunion. All four men have grown fond of one another, the three younger ones telling their newfound older brother they will still have years of pleasure in one another.

"I wondered how this could have happened. I could not believe it. To be honest, I did not want to accept it. I might have had a different life. I want [the hospital] to roll back the clock to the day that I was born. As I saw pictures of my parents, I wanted to see them alive. For months, I could not hold back the tears every time I saw their pictures", said the truck driver. But he has become philosophical about what happened to him. He loved his adoptive mother and his brothers in that family and has few regrets on that account.

He and his three 'new' genetic brothers launched a lawsuit against the San-Ikukai Hospital in Sumida Ward. The Tokyo District Court ordered the hospital to pay the man 38-million yen ($393,000), a considerable sum in damages, in reflection of the accidental transfer of babies. "The links between the man and his real parents were severed and the man was forced to grow up in a poor home. The mental anguish he went through was enormous", said Judge Masatoshi Miyasaka in his ruling.