You Are Not the Mother of Your Children

Part 1 – A Distraught Mother

1. Why must a mother’s DNA match that of her biological children? Why would Damian

expect half of the children’s DNA to come from their mother? Why not 30% of it? Or 70% of

the DNA?

This problem is related to meiosis. First of all, the definition of the term biological

children is ‘any child conceived rather than adopted by a specified parent, and therefore

carrying genes from the parent.’ Zygote, which is the seed of offspring, is created by

unification of a sperm from father and an egg from mother. Since sperm and egg has 23

chromosomes in its nucleus as a result of meiosis, human being is able to maintain our own

number of chromosomes, which is 46. And because the sperm and egg has same number of

chromosomes, they contains same amount of DNA, and that’s the reason why the half of

children’s DNA has to come from their mother, and the other half is from father.

2. What is the process by which DNA is transmitted to offspring? How does only half of the

genetic material of the parent get transmitted to the child?

Going through meiosis, process takes place in the tests or ovaries, normal body cells

divide, creating 2 exact copies of each other, however when a sex cell divides it creates 4

cells each of them having half the amount of DNA. Therefore when the sperm meets the egg,

its half mom's DNA and half dad's.

3. The welfare people asked Lillian a number of questions about where she got the children

from. From their questions, it is clear they had formed several hypotheses as to why Lillian’s

DNA did not match the DNA of her children.

a. From the questions the welfare people asked, try to discern their hypotheses. List the

hypotheses put forward as to how the children had DNA that did not match with Lillian’s

DNA.

1. A mother’s DNA must match with half of her biological children’s DNA, so these

children are not Lillian’s children.

2. Those children would be grandchild of Lillian since 25% of DNA are matching.

3. Lillian might confuse between her real child and the child she surrogated.

4. Lillian is lying, she adopted them.

b. For each hypothesis, how much of the DNA would you expect the children to share with

Lillian? For instance, how much genetic material should an aunt expect to share with her

nephews and nieces?

Lillian and her children must share half since Lillian is claiming they are her real

children. And if they are Lillian’s grandchildren, they have to share quarter. And if they are

being surrogated when they were developed in womb, sharing percentage of DNA might very

small. Mother shares 50% of her DNA with her sister since siblings always share

approximately 50% of their genetic material. This means that we share about 25% of your

DNA with aunt.

c. What hypotheses seem most likely to you? Least likely?

I think she was surrogating her sister’s babies. But I don’t think she adopted them, it

is very hard to lie in the court.

d. What other evidence would you need to support each hypothesis?

 First hypothesis has been proved by former researches, but since she is claiming error

about it, we have got to use the other hypothesis. In order to prove second hypothesis, we

need to find the person whose DNA is matching 50% with Lillian. Third one might be tough

to prove, because we need to find real mother and father to prove it. Fourth one is easy

because we just can use lie detectors.

4. Do you think Lillian is telling the truth? Why or why not? Does the evidence support her

claim?

I don’t think so. I think she did surrogacy in order to maintain her house and gain

money.

Part 2 – A strange Child

1. What is a chimera?

A chimera is a single organism which is composed by two or more different

populations of genetically distinct cells that originated from different zygotes involved in

sexual reproduction. If the different cells have emerged from the same zygote, the organism is

called a mosaic. Chimeras are formed from at least four parent cells. Each population of cells

keeps its own character and the resulting organism is a mixture of tissues. Chimeras are

typically seen in animals. There are some reports of human chimerism.

2. What are fraternal twins, and how do they normally occur? How much of their DNA would

you expect fraternal twins to share?

Fraternal twins occur when a woman produces two egg cells at the same time and

both get fertilized. Fraternal twins come from two different egg cells, while identical twins
come from a single egg cell. Identical twins share 100% of their DNA. Fraternal twins can

share as little as 1% to 99%. They share the same amount of DNA as non-twin siblings,

which is 50%.

3. Why does Dr. Vijayvergia think the mother (Lillian) can be a chimera and not appear

abnormal?

According to the biological law, Lillian’s kids can’t be regarded as a biological

offspring. But Lillian is keep arguing they both are her kids. So only possible reason is exist

of two countering (right different) genotype in her body, which is chimera.

4. How could Dr. Vijayvergia’s hypothesis be tested? What could you do to find out if Lillian

was a chimera?

If you are a chimera whose blood is made up of cells from both twins, then a DNA test on

just your blood would reveal that fact. But if you are a chimera whose blood comes from just

one twin, a DNA test on your blood wouldn't be enough. You’d need to test other tissues too.

If you had skin cells from one twin and blood cells from another, then your chimerism might

be detected if you tested both types of cells. But if you had skin and blood from one twin and

internal organs from another, a DNA test would still miss it. So if a DNA test comes back that

you are not a chimera, you still might be one. You just didn't test the right tissues. A DNA test

might find out one person is a chimera and misses this fact with a second person.

Part 3 – Epilogue: But How Does It Happen?

1. Using your knowledge of the normal process of gametogenesis and fertilization, formulate

a hypothesis as to how a chimeric individual could form.

 The most reasonable explanation about these problems is DNA absorption between

twins. Let’s suppose a woman has identical twins in her womb and one of the babies has died

during the early stage of pregnancy. The dead baby’s DNA could move to another baby who

is still alive.

2. In addition to paternity testing, DNA testing is now used legally in many civil and criminal

cases. In what kinds of cases other than parentage could the presence of chimerism cause

problems? Propose a situation in which DNA testing of a chimeric individual might lead to an

unjust legal decision.

Let’s say the series murder has been going on. Police has figured out every murder

have done by same one person, but the DNA informations found in crime scene were

different beside victims. We can assume the murderer is chimera, but chimera is very rare and

it is very hard to make sure. This can be very huge problem.

3. Does this case raise any other questions for you? The questions do not have to be

biological or legal in nature.

I am just curious about the formation of chimera. How come the dead one-identical

baby’s DNA can be absorbed to the other baby? I can’t figure out how and why. Anyway if

scientist research about chimera, it can be used in good way such as organ transplant but can

be bad way like crimes.

Work Cited

“키메라 (Chimera).” Naver. 2010. Web. 28 Oct. 2013

“Medical Dictionary.” Bantam Dell. 2004. Book. 28 Oct. 2013.

“키메라(카이메라)” Seoul National University. 2010. Web. 2 Nov. 2013