Have you ever considered trying out an ancestry DNA test? Maybe you’ve always wondered ‘what can an ancestry DNA test reveal about our past?’ These are entirely normal things to think about as more and more DNA test companies seem to keep popping up on the market. There are many stories out there about DNA testing that leads to startling discoveries, but today we’re going to focus on a single one.
Imagine Being in This Situation
As reported in Washington Post, one woman chose to take advantage of the new DNA tests that everyone is curious about. Maybe she wanted to know more about her heritage or trace her family tree. She ended up getting a whole lot more than she ever could have bargained for when the results came back to her. The woman, Kelli Rowlette, discovered that her DNA matched an individual she would never have guessed. This person’s identity? Her parents’ fertility doctor. Dr. Gerald E. Mortimer was listed as Kelli’s father, which was a major shock to her. The man lived about 500 miles away, and it turned out that he was the doctor her parents consulted back when they were having trouble conceiving. Rowlette never even knew her parents had this struggle, which made it even more shocking.
The Shocking Discovery Explained
Rowlette’s mother had trouble getting pregnant and eventually chose to be artificially inseminated. However, neither Rowlette or her parents knew that the sperm used to impregnate the mother came straight from the fertility doctor in the clinic they visited. Since the truth came out, Rowlette has been in the process of bringing a lawsuit against Mortimer and Obstetrics and Gynecology Associates of Idaho Falls, the same practice where Dr. Mortimer is believed to have engaged in fraud and medical negligence. The doctor diagnosed Rowlette’s parents with a tipped uterus and low sperm count and then recommended that the mother be inseminated with her husband’s sperm along with an anonymous donor’s. However, it turns out the doctor was the “anonymous donor.” He was also the same man who would deliver his own child only a year later.
Receiving the DNA Results
When Rowlette got her DNA results, she spoke to her mother to express her disappointment in the results, which she believed were incorrect. However, the mother looked at the results and immediately realized who the person named as father was and shared it with Rowlette’s father, who was equally upset. The point of this story is to show exactly how crazy the results from a DNA ancestry service can be. You never know what results you are going to get and what is going to show up on that screen. Is it worth going through with anyway? For many people, the answer is yes, but that’s something everyone has to determine on their own. Just remember that crazy things happen out there and sometimes it can be better to know the truth, while other times it might be easier not to.
